“French citizens are going to the polls en masse this election week”, notes El País. The mobilization for the first round of parliamentary elections in 2024 “is higher than expected and seems to be contrary to the trend observed in recent years”, observe BBC.
Like many foreign media, the British Broadcasting Corporation is devoting live coverage to the vote and notes that participation is reaching a very high level. At 5 p.m., according to the Ministry of Interior, the turnout reached 59.39 percent, 20 points more than in the first round of the 2022 election at the same time.
According to AFP, this is the highest rate at this time of day since the first round of parliamentary elections in 1978 (68.89%), with the exception of the 1986 elections, which were held proportionally to the round.
At noon, participation was already clearly increasinghave 25.9%, compared to 18.4% in 2022. According to a Belgian daily Evening, which quotes the assessment of the public opinion research institute Ipsos, “Participation in the first round should be 67.5 percent, which would be the highest participation rate since the 1997 elections, after the dissolution of the National Assembly decided by the then President Jacques Chirac”.
It could rise to 69.5%, he writes La Repubblica which relays assessment of Elaba for BFMTV, RMC and La Tribune on Sunday. That would be a record since 1981, the Italian newspaper points out.
“The current situation is different”
As he recalls El Paísparliamentary elections “they tend to mobilize much less than presidential elections” but “The current situation is different because the elections are for the election of 577 members of the National Assembly predicted Emmanuel Macronafter the failure he experienced in the European elections on June 9.”
Approximately 49 million French voters are invited to renew the entire National Assembly, or 577 deputies, during two rounds, this Sunday and July 7.
At 5 p.m., the highest participation by department was recorded in Finistère with 68.26%, ahead of Tarn (67.31%) and Dordogne (66.82%).
The lowest rates were recorded in the Paris region with 47.04% in Seine-Saint-Denis, 50.53% in Essonne and 50.91% in Val-d’Oise. In Paris, the participation rate is 60.87%.
“Participation is above Europeans”, explains the Swiss daily Time member of the Pontarlier office.
“There is real enthusiasm behind these parliamentary elections and you can feel it. Since this morning, people have been entering the voting booths non-stop.”
A strong mobilization has been announced for the BBC “reflects the stakes of an election in which one of the two leading powers of the European Union could be led by a populist right-wing government”.