“One thing is certain, it is that the Le Pen vote is completely excluded”, declares this professor of economics in a high school in the Paris suburbs, aged 35.

According to Pierre *, two options: "Vote Macron or abstain. We are all a little + annoyed +, a little lost", he launches, referring to the vote of his profession.

"I was already hesitating in 2017 but now I'm even more hesitant".

Same puzzle for Karim *, 30 years old and history-geography teacher in Saint-Denis near Paris.

"I've never been so indecisive in all my life, everything is confused, it's horrible".

In 2017, "I had voted for Macron with great hesitation. After the past five years, where this government has been socially and psychologically ultra-violent, with the dikes separating us from the far right which have already burst, it It's very hard to make a decision."

He assures "to take more time to make (his) choice between the Macron vote or abstention".

"Am I really going to assume to rely on others by abstaining, especially in the face of my already very disadvantaged students?", He sighs.

Still in Seine-Saint-Denis, in Stains, Frédéric *, 40, professor of economics and social sciences, is in the same hesitation: vote Macron or abstain.

"The current government has ruined the school and the public service for five years with working conditions that have deteriorated and students who have lost their learning with the reform of the school. But am I ready to abstain and take the risk of Le Pen? I don't know yet. It's hard."

“Very afraid of the result”

In the suburbs of Lille, Gaëlle, a history and geography teacher in college, is also "undecided".

"I'm annoyed because my zone is on vacation for the duration of the second round and I would have liked to talk with colleagues in the teachers' room, there are a lot of us who don't know what to do", says this 54-year-old woman.

France has some 870,000 teachers, traditionally few abstentionists.

The majority of teachers interviewed by AFP said they were indecisive.

But some have made their choice.

"I am aware of representing a small minority in National Education but I voted Macron in the first round and I will do the same in the second", explains Olivier, 49, professor of history and geography in Charente-Maritime.

"I must admit that I am very afraid of the final result. I don't feel it at all, this vote, because around me, I have the impression that people are walking like sleepwalkers".

Same observation for Jacques *, 32, another professor of economics and social sciences near Paris, who, for "fear that people abstain too much", decided to "vote Macron".

"It's not an easy choice but you have to stick to it."

Hélène *, a school teacher in the Vaucluse, is categorical: "It will be a militant abstention, of opinion".

"Neither program satisfies me. Of course Le Pen is worse, but after five horrible years for school under Macron, I don't feel ready to vote for him, it's impossible", says this 48-year-old teacher, who thinks that "abstention will be at the heart of the subjects on April 24", day of the 2nd round.

Marie *, 40 years old, CPE in Paris in the secondary will vote "white".

"It remains a civic act to vote, to move, that's why I prefer the blank vote to abstention".

For her, "out of the question to give (s) a voice to Macron after five very difficult years for education".

* the first names have been changed at the request of the teachers

© 2022 AFP