French Election 2022 Final Round is Today

Today, voters in France will decide who the president will be for the next four years. They have a choice between incumbent Emmanuel Macron, a right leaning moderate, and far right extremist Marine Le Pen. 

Macron, the incumbent president, received the most votes of anyone in the first round, garnering 27.8 percent of the vote, with over 9.785 million votes. Le Pen came in second place, with 23.1 percent, or 8.136 million votes. That is what qualified the two of them for this final runoff election today.

As for the other candidates, Jean-Luc Mélenchon of La France Insoumise (LFI), the most serious left leaning of the major candidates, was the only other candidate to earn over 20 percent of the vote, getting 22 percent with 7.714 million votes. Far right wing extremist Éric Zemmour of Reconquête came in fourth, but with just 7.1 percent of the vote (2.485 million), he was far behind the three main contenders.

Like with American elections, not everybody is thrilled by the choice between these two final candidates. First of all, it is a rematch of the 2017 presidential election, which Macron won by around two to one, with 66 percent of the vote to just 33 percent for Le Pen. This time, the race is much tighter, although heading into this final stretch, the incumbent Macron still leads Le Pen by ten or so points, according to the most recent polls. Then again, we have all seen races where the final result did not exactly stay consistent with polls, right? 

Beyond the rematch aspect of it, and the possible excessive familiarity of the two candidates for French voters, many people have their reservations regarding both of the candidates. Macron is generally viewed as arrogant and elitist, and out of touch with most French people. Also, he is regarded as being overly obsessed with the European Union by some. Meanwhile, Le Pen is still suspected of being xenophobic and racist, and some people are worried that she is overly close to Putin in Russia. 

When you look at it that way, perhaps the French elections are not radically different from the American ones in certain ways. How often have we felt we had to settle for the lesser of two evils or, as I once saw Michael Moore suggest, the "evil of two lessers?" It seems that this trend goes well beyond American borders. France appears to be no stranger to this tendency, evidently. I remember that in the 2002 elections, the seeming two major candidates were the then incumbent Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin. Like with Bush and Gore, many people found that there were just too many similarities between the two candidates. So much like some cynical Americans (myself included) took to referring to the top two candidates as Gush and Bore, French people began to refer to those two candidates as a collective, as Jirac and Chospin. 

To be fair, there seems to be more of a fundamental difference this time around, although perhaps not quite as much as either of the two candidates would like the voters to believe. Macron is a right-leaning centrist, and he wants to continue more of the same from his first term in office. In other words, he represents the status quo for France. He prides himself on foreign policy, and has been very visible around the globe in recent weeks for his talks with Russia's Putin and Ukraine's Zelensky during this war. So far, however, there is very little indication that the war in Ukraine is figuring prominently in this election. Most people seem to be deciding between the two candidates for other major issues that are closer to their hearts. 

So Macron represents the status quo, and many people felt that he and his policies were suspiciously friendly towards financial elites. Many feel that Macron himself is trying to bring back days of French leaders surrounded by opulence and grandeur, with highly visible official functions being held on the grounds at Versailles, one of the most famously grandiose and impressive palaces and formal gardens in the world. Of course, when most people think of Versailles, they think of the days of absolute monarchs in France, and it is very hard to think about them and not think of their excesses, and how these led to a very famous revolution, which broke out in violence. Given this history, there are many in France who view such displays of grandeur and excess, and those who orchestrate them, with suspicion. Also, there are rumors of scandals surrounding him that have convinced many of his opponents that he is corrupt.

Macron's approval ratings had taken a beating for a long time, and earlier this year, he was quite unpopular. The chances of him getting reelected seemed relatively slim. However, the reservations that many people still feel towards Le Pen, his opponent, makes it at least appear, heading into this final day of the election, that he will now indeed win a second term. 

By contrast, Le Pen had seemed to be coming on strong of late. Still, many seem to suspect that she is too close to Putin. There are already allegations that a Le Pen win would amount to a foreign victory in Paris for Putin, as they suspect that he is behind her success, or at least would benefit from it. In the past, similar to Trump, Le Pen has seemed to be almost an admirer of Putin, based on her comments. Her approval ratings took a bit of a dip initially after Russia launched the invasion of Ukraine, although she did spike back up in recent days, just prior to the first round of the election. 

Personally, I voted yesterday at the French American Academy of Jersey City. In the French elections that I have participated in, you get slips of paper, which you fold up and put in an envelope, then submit. Since this was the second round, there were only two such slips of paper. One I submitted, and the other I did not. Looking at the picture below, it seems to me that you can more or less make out the name of the candidate that I did not vote for. 

Whatever happens, it should prove to be interesting. Let's see what happens.