The first round of the presidential election took place this Sunday.
Emmanuel Macron comes first with around 28% of the vote, ahead of Marine Le Pen (23.2%).
They will be opposed on Sunday April 24 for a second round.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon arrives just behind.
Turnout was one of the highest in the history of the Fifth Republic.
Unsurprisingly, it is a new Emmanuel Macron-Marine Le Pen duel that will await the French and the French on April 24.
After a campaign sidelined by the health crisis and then by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, voters spoke this Sunday and the poster for the second round of the presidential election is known.
We take stock of the lessons of this first round, marked by a strong abstention.
Macron as expected
The polls have been invariably announcing it for many months, the outgoing president came out ahead in this first round.
According to the latest estimates, Emmanuel Macron collects 27.6% of the vote, according to the latest estimates from Ipsos-Sopra Steria for France Télévisions, five points ahead of Marine Le Pen.
The outgoing president manages to improve his 2017 score (24.01% in the first round).
In front of his supporters gathered at Porte de Versailles, Emmanuel Macron wanted to unify, making his competitors applaud… with the exception of Marine Le Pen.
Because the head of state is not mistaken, "nothing is played" and he will need a large mobilization to win largely on April 24 against the candidate of the RN.
Also Emmanuel Macron said he was "ready to invent something new",
Marine Le Pen for the second time in the second round
“The French people have spoken and do me the honor of being qualified in the second round against the outgoing president.
“Smiling, Marine Le Pen savored her second place, this Sunday evening, calling on “all those who did not vote for Emmanuel Macron” to elect him on April 24 to carry a project of “social justice and protection”.
With 23% of the vote, the candidate of the National Rally has the luxury of doing better than in 2017 (21.3% in the first round), when she was, this year, in competition with Eric Zemmour.
The one who wants to embody the “great alternation that France needs” promises to be the “president of all French people” in the event of an election.
" We will win !
“, replied in chorus the activists gathered in the Bois de Vincennes.
No mouse hole for the turtle
The candidate of La France insoumise has often defined himself, during this campaign, as “a sagacious turtle, which advances slowly but which exhausts the hares”.
But the one who collected 22.2% only allows him to arrive in third position.
"We must not give a single voice to Madame Le Pen", he repeated several times this Sunday in front of his activists, calling on them to continue the "fight".
Far from the bitterness expressed at the end of the first round five years ago, the rebellious leader encouraged his supporters: “The task we have to accomplish is that of the myth of Sisyphus.
We must fight this battle, and the next one, as many as there will be!
»
Pécresse and Zemmour under 10%, the left split
Beyond the leading trio, Eric Zemmour and Valérie Pécresse recorded results well below their expectations, with 7.2% and 4.8% of the vote respectively.
“I take each of your voices as the cry of a people who do not want to die”, reacted the former journalist before calling to vote for Marine Le Pen.
Moved, the Republican candidate for her part indicated that she would vote “in conscience” for Emmanuel Macron.
But “the right and the center must not let go” in view of the legislative elections, estimated Valérie Pécresse.
The legislative elections are also the priority for Yannick Jadot: “Ecology will be absent from the second round but it should not be from the five-year term!
“With 4.7% of the vote, a score depriving him of reimbursement of campaign expenses, the MEP also called on green voters to provide their” financial support “to EELV.
Yannick Jadot also called for voting for Emmanuel Macron on April 24 to "block the far right", as did Fabien Roussel (2.3%) and Anne Hidalgo (1.7%).
The other "small" candidates have had varying degrees of success: a significant increase compared to 2017 for Jean Lassalle (3.1% compared to 1.21% five years ago), a sharp decline for Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (2. 1% against 4.7%) and less than 1% for Philippe Poutou (0.7%) and Nathalie Arthaud (0.6%).
Participation down sharply
It was announced at a historic record, abstention was finally lower than in 2002, when it had reached 28.4%.
According to the main polling institutes, however, it is at a particularly high level – around 25%, ie a participation rate of 75% of registered voters.
In 2017, the participation rate was 77.77%.
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