French President Emmanuel Macron won what appears to be a landslide victory against far right leader Marine Le Pen, with 58 percent of the vote. But abstention numbers reveal a less united vote - as Macron’s opponents are quick to point out - which will likely impact how he governs in the next five years, and how the far right fares in future elections.
Macron won in the second-round run off on Sunday with 58.54, against Le Pen’s 41.46 percent.
But the high abstention rate of 28.01 percent - the highest in any second-round vote in France since 1969 - means Macron was actually elected by only 38.52 percent of registered voters (compared to Le Pen’s 27.27 percent).
For hard-left Jean-Luc Melenchon, who came in third in the first round, Macron’s win is the worst result of any president in the fifth republic.
Macron’s presidency “survives in a sea of abstention, blank and invalid ballots”, said Melenchon on Sunday.
After the first round he called on the 22 percent of electors who voted for him to not cast one vote for Marine Le Pen, though he fell short of endorsing Macron.
His party then held a vote, and 37 percent of members said they would cast a blank ballot, 33 percent said they would vote for Macron to block Le Pen, and 29 percent said they would abstain.
Reluctant voters
On election day, his voters were torn.
“Since blank ballots are not counted, casting one doesn't say anything,” said Julie, 29, who voted for Melenchon in the first round in Paris, and on Sunday was hesitating whether or not to go to the polling station.
She finally decided to vote, reluctantly: “If you are faced with the potential election of a fascist party, you go anyway - you vote against it.”
Lucille, 26, also hesitated on Sunday, and was convinced to vote Macron, and not cast a blank ballot, in order to ensure that a candidate whose ideas she finds dangerous would not win.
“I voted for the less worse: about immigration questions, how foreign people are treated, social aid,” she said. “I prefer a programme that doesn't condition social aid to nationality, for example.”
According to exit polls, 45 percent of Melenchon voters abstained or cast blank or invalid ballots, while 42 percent voted for Macron and 13 percent for Le Pen.
Republican front?
Officially, 6.35 percent of ballots cast were blank and 2.25 percent were invalid, a combined 8.6 percent that did not reach the 2017 record of 11.52 percent in 2017.
Macron’s win means the so-called ‘Republican front’, in which parties ban together to keep the far right from winning, remains in France, but it is weakened.
In each election since 2002, when Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, made it into the second round against Jacques Chirac, the numbers for the party, the National Rally, have been going up.
