Turnout was significantly up by 12 pm on Sunday in mainland France in the first round of parliamentary elections, at 25.90%, compared with 18.43% at the same time in the 2022 ballot, said the Ministry of the Interior.
A divided France is voting in high-stakes parliamentary elections that could see the anti-immigrant and eurosceptic party of Marine Le Pen sweep to power in a historic first. The candidates formally ended their frantic campaigns at midnight on Saturday, with political activity banned until the first round of voting.
In 1997, during the last early parliamentary elections, the figure was 22.74% at midday. The earthquake of the dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale announced by President Emmanuel Macron on June 9, and the stakes of the ballot, which could pave the way for the far-right to come to power, seem to have strongly mobilized the French. Final turnout should therefore be well above the 47.51% of 2022, and could even exceed the 67.9% of 1997.
In Paris, turnout at midday more than doubled to 25.48%, compared with 12.26% two years earlier, according to the prefecture. Turnout was highest in the southern departments of France, with 34.41% in Aveyron, 33.70% in Bouches-du-Rhône, 33.61% in Gers, 32.85% in Dordogne and 32.68% in Hautes-Alpes. The lowest rates were in the Paris region, with 17.93% in Seine-Saint-Denis, 18.29% in Val-de-Marne and 18.47% in Hauts-de-Seine.