Until a week before today’s first round of the presidential race the French appeared to be shunning their favourite electoral contest. Polls showed that undecided voters, potential abstainers or those likely to cast a spoilt ballot was higher than in the past. Covid and the Ukraine war were blamed for having robbed French citizens of their election. A further reason was incumbent president Emmanuel Macron. He has doubled down on Jupiterian aloofness since his election. He refused to declare his candidacy until the very last moment, condescendingly shunned invitations to debate with other candidates and pompously claimed that affairs of state were more important than election campaigning. Why bother when polls put him well ahead of his rivals? This complacency may cost him dear as his lead shrinks to within the margin of error. Whoever wins, France is on the brink of considerable political unpredictability.
A harbinger of that restlessness is the stunning breakdown in party loyalty and the increasing fluidity and porosity between far left and right.
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