2024 Legislative Elections. Turnout of 59.39% at 5 p.m.: “The French are going to the polls in droves”
“French citizens are going to the polls in droves on this election Sunday”, notes The Country. Mobilization for the first round of the 2024 legislative elections is “higher than expected and seems to go against the trend observed in recent years”, observe the BBC.
Like many foreign media, the British radio and television website devotes a live broadcast to the vote and notes that participation reaches a very high level. At 5 p.m., according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, the participation rate reached 59.39%, or 20 points more than in the first round of the 2022 vote at the same time.
According to AFP, this is the highest rate at this time of day since the first round of the 1978 legislative elections (68.89%), with the exception of the 1986 election, which was held using proportional representation in one round.
At noon, participation was already clearly on the risehas 25.9%, compared to 18.4% in 2022. According to the Belgian daily The evening, which cites an estimate from the Ipsos polling institute, “The turnout in the first round is expected to be 67.5%, which would be the highest turnout since the 1997 elections, after the dissolution of the National Assembly decided by the then president, Jacques Chirac.”
“The current situation is different”
As recalled El Paísparliamentary elections “tend to mobilize much less than the presidential election”but “The current situation is different because the elections to elect the 577 deputies of the National Assembly were anticipated by Emmanuel Macronfollowing the setback he suffered in the European elections on June 9.”
Some 49 million French voters were called to renew the entire National Assembly, or 577 deputies, during two rounds, this Sunday and July 7.
At 5 p.m., the highest participation by department was recorded in Finistère with 68.26%, ahead of Tarn (67.31%) and Dordogne (66.82%). The lowest rates were noted in the Paris region with 47.04% in Seine-Saint-Denis, 50.53% in Essonne and 50.91% in Val-d’Oise. In Paris, the participation rate is 60.87%.
“The participation is above the Europeans”, explains to the Swiss daily The weather a member of an office in Pontarlier. “There is a real enthusiasm behind these legislative elections and it is felt. Since this morning, people have been following one another in the voting booth without stopping.”
For the BBC, the strong mobilization announced “reflects the stakes of an election that could see one of the European Union’s two leading powers led by a right-wing populist government.”
