PRESIDENTIAL 2022. Emmanuel Macron was re-elected President of the Republic at the end of the 2022 presidential election. From the irruption of Zemmour to the historic score of the RN, via the division of the left or abstention, here we must remember from the election and its result…
Emmanuel Macron therefore leaves for five years. The outgoing President of the Republic was re-elected on Sunday April 24, 2022 at the end of the presidential election, against Marine Le Pen, winning 58.55% of the votes cast, or 18,768,639 votes, as proclaimed the Constitutional Council on April 27. A victory at the end of a particular campaign, which did not particularly interest the French, marked by the constant repetition in the polls of a final poster between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, of which most voters nevertheless said do not want.
This 2022 presidential election will also have been characterized by the irruption of an Eric Zemmour who came to dynamite, for a time, the political game, while the left brought its divisions to light and appeared irreconcilable, to the great displeasure of its electorate. What to remember from the 12th presidential election of the Fifth Republic.
What do the 2022 presidential results cards say?
The 2022 presidential election also confirmed the political trend that had been taking shape since the eruption of Emmanuel Macron in 2017: France is now split into three major political trends. The majority bloc, liberal and progressive, embodied by Emmanuel Macron; the conservative and nationalist bloc led by Marine Le Pen; the radical left bloc led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. A tripartite France, therefore, far from the traditional divide known for decades between left and right. To the President of the Republic the most affluent territories, to his rival rural France, to the tribune of the left the popular lands and some large cities.
For Emmanuel Macron, this new success against Marine Le Pen, as in 2017, was won in a very particular context. First because the Elysée resident was slow to start the race. It was only through a “Letter to the French” published in the regional daily press on March 3 that the Head of State once again solicited the confidence of voters. An express first-round campaign with a single big meeting organized at the Paris La Défense Arena in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), in the midst of the management of the crisis in Ukraine.
It was only once his qualification had been acquired in the second round that the former Minister of the Economy accelerated, multiplying his trips in contact with the population, before debating calmly against his rival, resulting in his re-election without having gave the impression of being exhausted with the task. It must be said that since he moved to the palace in 2017, “Jupiter”, as he is nicknamed, has never seemed able to be beaten by anyone. The left having presented itself in the fragmented ballot, the right having lost its electorate to the benefit of the head of state, and the far right not managing to break its glass ceiling, Emmanuel Macron could legitimately claim a new five-year term. .
Although it was once again brought to power, the project led by Emmanuel Macron garnered much less support than in 2017. Although it obtained more votes in the 1st round in 2022 than five years earlier (+1 .1 million), fewer votes were counted in his favor in the 2nd round of 2022 compared to 2017 (-1.9 million). What represent the membership of only 38.5% of registered against 43.61% in the previous election. Faced with Marine Le Pen, the “republican front” carried by all political leaders (excluding the far right) did not receive the same echo as in 2017, Emmanuel Macron having won the election with 66% of the vote.
What to remember from Marine Le Pen’s score in the 2022 presidential election?
For the first time in history, the National Rally for its part exceeded the 40% mark in a presidential election, Marine Le Pen winning 13,288,686 votes in the second round on 24 April. The National Rally candidate was boosted compared to 2017 (33.90%, or just over 10.6 million votes) by the progress of her de-demonization campaign, blatant in the interval between the two rounds and in particular during the debate, where she tried to display an image of seriousness and serenity.
Marine Le pen also benefited from the ballots of an “Everything but Macron” vote, whose little music was heard during the in-between rounds. A sanction vote which could for a time fuel the fear of a victory for the far right and which was only compensated thanks to the blocking votes of the left. All this in the context of an almost historic abstention in the second round with 28.01% of voters who did not turn out, ie 13,655,861 registered voters, a level not reached since 1969 (31.1%).
What to remember from the result of Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the 2022 presidential election?
For five years, he repeated at will to have missed the second round of 2017 to 600,000 votes. This time, Jean-Luc Mélenchon came to fail with just over 400,000 votes. The candidate of rebellious France failed in third place on April 10, during the first ballot, with 21.95% of the vote, or 7,712,520 votes. A new defeat at the gates of the 2nd round difficult to digest for the left-wing tribune and his supporters, given the fragmentation of the left for the ballot. These 400,000 votes, the deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône could easily have drawn from the electorate of Yannick Jadot, Fabien Roussel or even Anne Hidalgo. But for lack of union, the left was scuttled.
Never mind the attempt at conciliation carried out by the process of the Popular Primary culminating in a short-lived attempt by Christiane Taubira, who will not even manage to gather the 500 signatures necessary to compete. The talks for a union behind a common project had in any case not succeeded due to significant differences on certain programmatic aspects. The Communists, for their part, even argued that having joined LFI in 2012 and 2017 had not made it possible to access the second round, thus pushing them to go it alone. But none of the parishes other than that of LFI exceeded 5%.
If the result of the presidential election does not suffer from any dispute, the campaign, although it did not fascinate the crowds, was animated by the irruption of Eric Zemmour in the middle of the political game. From the beginning of the summer of 2021, the beginnings of an arrival of the polemicist on the presidential scene are felt. Everything accelerated with the release of his latest book France did not say its last word. The regular of the trays of CNews then embarks on a tour of France to officially present and talk about his work. Wherever he goes, the former journalist from Figaro full house. Behind the scenes, he is actually preparing a candidacy for the presidential election.
Over the weeks, the rumor becomes certainty, to the point that polling institutes include it in their opinion polls on voting intentions even though it has not officially declared itself. The announcement is made in early December. Eric Zemmour then elbows with Marine Le Pen in the polls, rising to 16%. To the point, sometimes, of doubling the candidate of the RN in the voting intentions. But his campaign ran out of steam and, despite several rallies and the media arrival of Marion Maréchal, never took off again and the polls continued to fall. So much so that Eric Zemmour finally finished with 7.07% of the votes cast, not preventing Marine Le Pen – whom he had hit on throughout the campaign – from qualifying.
This 2022 presidential election was also marked by a major turning point: the end of the historical parties. The Socialist Party was already on the edge of the abyss, Anne Hidalgo jumped in with both feet and dragged her political family there. After a sham primary, the mayor of Paris stubbornly wanted to go all the way without ever exceeding the 5% mark in the polls, during a campaign that never took off. It ends with the pitiful score of 1.75% under the banner of a party that came to power ten years earlier with François Hollande.
An equally catastrophic scenario took shape in Les Républicains. After internal quarrels for the nomination of the candidate (Xavier Bertrand wanting to go it alone), Valérie Pécresse finally represented the right after a designation of the militants, in December. Too late denounced some. But is it only because of a tight schedule that the president of the Île-de-France region has not managed to stimulate any momentum behind her project, despite a first post-primary survey giving her the ability to beat Emmanuel Macron? The former Minister of National Education did not raise the crowds, seeing some historical slip into the hands of Emmanuel Macron, even without formalization. Guardian figure of the Republicans, a party he himself founded, Nicolas Sarkozy will never have pushed the candidacy of his ex-minister. The result is catastrophic: with 4.78%, the campaign costs will not be reimbursed. A total rout, symbol of the new political era.