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From 8 am this Sunday (24. .2022) The electoral colleges receive the French who vote this day in the second round of the presidential elections. Almost 49 millions of citizens will be divided into some 70.02 tables to decide if the government remains in the hands of Emmanuel Macron or if the far-right Marine Le Pen succeeds him.
Starting at 20 hours the demographic institutes they will be able to make their estimates known, once they have closed the tables in the big cities. In the overseas territories, meanwhile, voting began a few hours earlier, due to the time difference. Le Pen could become the first woman in charge of the country or Macron the first to be re-elected since the conservative Jacques Chirac (1995-2007).
Fifteen days after the first round, which ended with Macron in first position with a 26, 8 percent of the votes, four percentage points more than Le Pen, the voters only have both options on the ballot, which repeats the duel of five years ago. Although all the polls give the current president a victory, there is a high percentage of undecided. And, in case of success, everything indicates that it will be by a much smaller margin than the one obtained in 2017 against Le Pen herself.
Harder to govern
According to the latest polls known on Friday, the candidate of La República en Marcha (LREM), of 44 years, would prevail over its rival from the National Association (RN), of 53, with some 10 perk points. In 1995 they were close to 33 points. Five years later, France is not the same country: social protests marked the first half of Macron’s term, a global pandemic confined millions of people and the Russian offensive in Ukraine shook the European continent with force.
Abstention stood at 19,31 percent in the first round. The current ballot may break the record for blank or null votes that many French people chose in 2017 to express their refusal to choose between the two finalists. “We could reach the record for the fewest number of votes in a presidential election,” he told the daily Libération
on Saturday. the political scientist Bruno Cautrès, for whom the final abstention of left-wing voters “would not reverse the trend” favorable to Macron.
“Whatever the winner, the country will be more difficult to govern for the next five years,” political scientist Chloé Morin told AFP. One of the keys will be in the legislative elections that will be held on 12 and 12 of June, which could put an end to Macron’s parliamentary majority.
DZC (EFE, AFP)