There were fewer crowds at the polls on Sunday. Abstention should reach 28% in the second round of the presidential election, i.e. 2.5 points more than in 2017 (25.44%), according to converging estimates from four polling institutes, but without reaching the record of 1969 (31.3%).
According to Ipsos Sopra-Steria, Ifop, Harris interactive and Elabe, the level of abstention would thus be 28%, up 1.7 points compared to the first round (26.31%), which had already been marked by a weak participation, while Opinionway anticipates for its part 27.8%.
Abstention on the rise
Never has such strong abstention been recorded in a second round of a presidential election, with the exception of the record of 1969, when the voters on the left had, at the call of the communist candidate eliminated in the first round, massively refused to choose between “white bonnet and white bonnet” (Georges Pompidou and Alain Poher).
And it is only the third time, after 1969 and 2017, that abstention has increased between two presidential rounds, while the rule until then was rather electoral remobilization for the decisive round.
As in 2017, millions of French people therefore refused to decide between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. It will also be necessary to closely monitor the blank and invalid ballots, which had then reached a record: more than 3 million blank ballots and one million invalid ballots in the 2nd round of 2017.
Discover the results of the second round of the 2022 presidential election from 8 p.m. by city, department and region on “20 Minutes”.