In 2024, the French are once again called to the polls to re-elect their 79 MEPs. Who is a candidate? When should you go to vote? Our guide.
Historically, it is the election that mobilizes the least in France. This has been less true in recent years with low participation in municipal, departmental and regional elections, but the European elections are of little interest. Only 46% of French people have a particular interest in this election when more than half of voters only watch it from afar, or even from afar. The challenge, however, is to elect the 79 deputies who will represent France in the European Parliament, based in Strasbourg. Scheduled in less than a year, will this electoral meeting consolidate the RN and Renaissance as the main political forces in the country? The left, at this stage disunited, will it agree as for the presidential one?
When will the European elections take place?
Unlike municipal, legislative or even presidential elections, European elections in France only take place over a single day. In 2024, the election date has been set for Sunday, June 9. Polling stations will be open from 8 a.m. and will close, depending on the size of the municipality, between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Who are the candidates for the European elections?
Officially, only two candidates have come out of the woodwork to embark on the campaign for the European elections of 2024: Léon Deffontaines, designated leader of the Communist Party for the electoral deadline, and Marie Toussaint, designated head of the EELV list by subscribers.
The rest is a blur. Will Jordan Bardella be top of the RN list again? Will François-Xavier Bellamy be returned to LR, five years after the sinking? Will Nathalie Loiseau take the Macronist candidates back to Strasbourg? What about Manon Aubry and LFI? Debout La France, by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, also plans to get into the race, as is Reconquête, the formation of Eric Zemmour.
What are the poll results?
One year before the election, polls have already been carried out by several institutes and a clear and distinct trend is emerging: the National Rally is given the lead in almost all the surveys carried out since the spring of 2023. The party led by Jordan Bardella is credited with between 24 and 27% of the vote. He would be ahead of the macronist coalition Together (Renaissance, MoDem, Horizons), which would obtain between 19 and 26% of the vote.
For the last step of the podium, the match is played between LR, EELV, the PS and LFI. The four parties stand, at this stage, in a pocket handkerchief, between 8 and 10% each. On the left, without union, the score should not be higher. On the other hand, if the Nupes were to reform for the Europeans, it could aim for around 25% of the vote and follow the RN.