Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen?

Before the opening of the polling stations on Sunday morning in mainland France, the first voters from overseas and abroad voted on Saturday, time difference obliges, for a presidential election with crucial issues.

Off the coast of Canada, the archipelago of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, kicked off the voting operations for the second round, before Guyana, the Antilles, then the islands of the Pacific and the ocean. Indian.

In Guyana, at the Henri-Agarande school in Cayenne, voters marched without downtime.

For Sandy Doro, an 18-year-old student: “it is an essential right that must be exercised”.

Beside her, Lyvio Francius, a student of the same age, also votes for the first time, but without much enthusiasm: "It was my mother who pushed me and took me away, otherwise it wouldn't not really interested”.

"Duty of citizenship"

In Baie-Mahault in Guadeloupe, Dominique B., 55, health/safety manager in a company, also did her “duty as a citizen” to “weigh in on the final decision”.

Even if “this campaign, in Guadeloupe, we haven't seen it much.

The politicians here do not know what to do and we voters find ourselves a little lost ”.

Long lines of voters, warmly dressed and anti-Covid masks on their faces, were also visible at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal (Canada), a city where a large French community resides.

In mainland France, polling stations open on Sunday from 8 a.m.

Since Friday midnight, the campaign is officially over.

Before the results on Sunday at 8 p.m., no interviews or polls or estimates of results can be published.

Some 48.7 million French people must decide, as in 2017, two candidates with radically opposed programs to lead a flagship country of Europe, in a particularly tense international context with a war raging at the borders of the European Union.

Two Frances

Europe, economy, purchasing power, relations with Russia, pensions, immigration: almost everything separates the two rivals, who seem to embody two Frances more than ever, after a five-year period studded with multiple crises, from "yellow vests" to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the one hand, Emmanuel Macron, 44, who came out on top in the first round (27.85%), once again wants to transcend the left/right divides to win.

Given favorite in the polls, he hopes to become the first president of the Fifth Republic re-elected by universal suffrage excluding cohabitation.

The outgoing president, who planned to hold his election night on the Champ-de-Mars, called for blocking the far right, promising lower taxes, pension reform and more ecology.

On the other, Marine Le Pen, 53, aims to become the first representative of the far right – a term she rejects – and the first woman to invest the Elysée.

On April 10, she had arrived more than four points (23.15%) behind the outgoing president.

Hardly beaten five years ago (33.9% of the vote), she intends to prove the opinion polls wrong by bringing together a broad anti-Macron front on the theme of defending purchasing power and the fight against immigration.

Around 500 people, often young, also demonstrated on Saturday in Strasbourg and 450 in Lille against the far right, according to figures from the prefectures.

Walk on the beach

Emmanuel Macron, dressed in a blue white red hoodie, cap and sunglasses, and his wife Brigitte walked for an hour and a half on the beach of Le Touquet (Pas-de-Calais), their place resort.

Before returning to their house after greeting onlookers.

“Whoever wins, the country will inevitably be more difficult to govern in the next five years,” political scientist Chloé Morin told AFP.

“If Emmanuel Macron is re-elected, the method of voting in the legislative elections should lead to (the) more radical oppositions being fairly weakly represented in Parliament.

They will therefore be more in a media opposition or in the street than in a parliamentary opposition or in a culture of compromise, ”according to her.

Abstention, referee and great unknown

Abstention is likely to be high, even stronger on Sunday than in the first round (26.31%).

Just like the blank and null ballots which had reached a record in 2017, attesting to the refusal of millions of French people to choose between the two finalists.

It could be between 26% and 28%, below the record for a second round in 1969 (31.1%).

The three school zones will also be on vacation this weekend, with in particular the start of spring break for the Paris region.

Participation in Overseas will therefore give an initial trend.

Especially since the Insoumis leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on the strength of his third place on April 10 with 21.95% of the votes at the national level, had arrived well ahead in the Antilles, exceeding the 50% mark in Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana.

His electorate – the largest reserve of votes between the two rounds – was particularly courted by the two finalists.

But many LFI supporters could be tempted to shun the ballot box.

  • Elections

  • Presidential election 2022

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Marine Le Pen

  • 2022 Presidential Polls

  • Vote

  • Overseas