While the three school zones are on vacation, abstention is likely to be high and one of the arbiters of this presidential election where voters must choose between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.

In front of the Trégain school, in the sensitive district of Maurepas, north of Rennes, it is in fact "quieter than two weeks ago" where "we had not taken a break", reports Fabien Toulemonde, 47 years old, secretary of polling station 151.

For Yolande Yédagni, 57, unemployed, born in France to Central African parents, it is nevertheless "a duty to go and vote".

"I am a citizen, I have to vote," she said, not saying she was worried about the outcome of the election.

Worried, Bernard Maugier, 76, retired with glasses and cap with NY logo, is more worried.

This resident of Maurepas says he voted "to avoid a civil war".

This is also the opinion of Pierre Charollais, 67, retired, who believes that we must "make the right choice" because "there is a particular situation" with the war in Ukraine and the French presidency of the Union European.

Léa, 27, a student, came to vote too, by bike.

"It's important, I vote systematically," she said.

"Without conviction"

In the Parisian suburbs, the small polling station installed in the spruce Edouard Herriot nursery school in Maisons-Alfort (Val-de-Marne) is empty.

"People came to vote early, around 8:00 a.m., to go on vacation right away," an assessor told AFP.

Between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., there is still no crowd and the voters follow one another in dribs and drabs.

In the line, Anny Platroze, 76, who "for the first time in her life" did "not know who to vote for in the first round", has "no more hope".

Presidential: participation in the 2nd round Cléa PÉCULIER AFP

But she is there, like Katia, who came "without any conviction, a little tired", because she "always voted", her parents "having raised her like that".

The 27-year-old sales hostess confesses "to be a little afraid of what could happen depending on the result".

Cédric, a 46-year-old engineer, voted "because people who complain and don't vote just have to shut up".

Change of atmosphere in the city center of La Possession, a town in the west of Reunion Island.

After Sunday mass, dozens of parishioners come out of the church.

Most rush straight into their cars parked a few meters from the town hall where the central office of the municipality is located.

Traditionally in the morning, it is after mass that the island's polling stations fill up with voters.

Less this time.

A voter votes in the second round of the presidential election on April 24, 2022 in Lavau-sur-Loire, in Loire-Atlantique Loic VENANCE AFP

"I didn't go to vote in the first round. I was waiting for the second to decide and in the end I honestly don't want to slip a ballot into the ballot box. I don't see the point, I'm going quietly spend my Sunday with the family", launches Emmeline Picard, a 28-year-old young woman looking for a job.

"The street that decides"

In New Caledonia, where abstention had reached a record rate in the first round (66.65%), the second round is announced under the same auspices.

Steeve Lauret, municipal employee, says he is "little surprised", recalling that the separatists have called for abstention.

But he "considers that it is everyone's duty to take an interest in the political life of the country, otherwise after that you should not complain".

In Dijon, Lucien Chameroy, 80, says he had "absolutely no hesitation" to come and vote.

"I think people don't realize it: if we don't vote and it's the street that decides, it will be the minorities who will take power," said the pensioner.

The ballots of the two presidential candidates Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen in a polling station in Cormontreuil, April 24, 2022 in the Marne FRANCOIS NASCIMBENI AFP

Morgan Mouiche, 30, has voted in "virtually every election" since he was 18.

"It's our future," he says, rocking the pram where his little girl of a few months old lies warm.

"Vote, you have to do it", abounds his companion, Elise Allard, 32 years old.

"It's a chance to go vote," she says.

The "blank vote", Morgan regrets that it is not counted: "people could express themselves", he assures.

At the other end of the city, in polling station 28, located in a more modest neighborhood where Jean-Luc Mélenchon came out on top with nearly 30%, Charley Grolleau, 41, admits that his ballot went to "a candidate who is not perfect".

"But I voted out of conviction. I couldn't see myself not going to vote", he adds, regretting all the same a "campaign not as usual, due to Ukraine and the Covid, where we went over certain subjects such as ecology".

burs-jk/cal

© 2022 AFP