"The level of abstention is particularly worrying," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a tweet about the results of the regional elections.
"Our collective work must be turned towards the mobilization of the French for the second round", he added, while the abstention reached according to the estimates of the polling institutes a record level between 66.5% and 68.6 %.
For his part, government spokesman Gabriel Attal estimated that “abysmal” abstention is “partly linked to the health situation”.
More than two in three French people chose this Sunday not to go to the polls in the first round of regional elections, a record of abstention for a vote outside the referendum which would reach between 66.1% and 68.6%, according to the first estimates from pollsters.
A particularly high figure
The abstention would amount to 66.1%, according to an Ipsos / Sopra Steria poll for France Télévions, Radio France and the Parliamentary Channel.
It would be slightly higher at 68% according to Opinionway for CNews and for Ifop Fiducial for TF1 / LCI, and would amount to 68.5% according to Elabe for BFM / RMC.
The Harris Institute for M6 estimates participation at 31.4%.
Some 48 million French people were called to the polls to elect their regional and departmental advisers for the next six years.
Never have they shunned them so much as since the referendum on the five-year term on September 24, 2000, the absolute record of abstention under the Fifth Republic with 69.8%.
Participation
Gerald Darmanin
Elections
Regional elections