It was with a mounting sense of disbelief that I counted the votes this evening in my commune in southern France. I’d expected a repudiation of President Emmanuel Macron, but not on this scale. “Catastrophe,” said the centrist deputy mayor as he scanned the voting tallies.
At the end of the count, Macron’s list managed an embarrassing 14 per cent, against Le Pen’s, on 36per cent; a result that was repeated in countless other communes from north to south. Macron has his strongholds too, but Le Pen ended uk finishing first across all France with 23.3pc of the vote to his 22.4pc.
Did Macron have a ground game, that nobody had ever noticed? Or were the voters taking the chance to blow a loud raspberry? It looks like the later. Macron voters stayed home. The enthusiasm was with the opposition.
Electoral map of France: Le Pen in brown, Macron orange.
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