This weekend, France will again go to the polls in the final round of voting. The choice is between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron. And while the polls look very much in Macron’s favour, many fear that Le Pen could still be in with a chance. Not so much because of the votes she will receive, but rather because of the votes Macron may not.
65 percent of disappointed Mélenchon voters are claiming they will abstain, according to a recent survey. This reflects a rising trend in France, called ‘l’abstention’ – the refusal to vote. For many French voters, both options they are presented with are equally unacceptable: having to choose between Le Pen’s openly racist politics and Macron’s glowing neo-liberal vision is pointless. Twitter is full of declarations of ‘l’abstention’ right now. ‘Capitalism or Fascism? Why should I have to chose between two regimes of terror?#SansMoiLe7Mai’ wrote one disappointed voter.
The hashtag, which means ‘without me on May 7th’ has been trending on social media since the first round last week. It was
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