I just went to vote in the french elections today in Norfolk , VA [View all]

[drray23]

I have dual citizenship and the French consulate sets up voting sites abroad for expats. On the first round two weeks ago, there were a few people. Today, it was crowded.

Hundreds of French expats swarmed the voting booths to vote. From what I gathered chatting with them afterwards in the parking lot, most were there to vote for Macron. They were horrified that we could lose France to Le Pen.

We lost America for four years to Trump, it was traumatic, we do not want that to happen back in France. Many of the people I spoke with were not involved with politics or following it carefully before.

This changed when it looked like Le Pen could win. On a similar note, I was reading an article in le figaro (big french newspaper) giving the participation relative to where voters are in France. On average 20 or so percent of french voters did not vote (meaning 80 did) on the first round.

What struck me more is not so much that number but the fact that the areas with low participation were all in RW strongholds (east of France and south of France as well as Corsica).


You can see these charts here :

https://www.lefigaro.fr/elections/presidentielles/presidentielle-2022-tous-les-resultats-en-chiffres-et-en-cartes-20220411