“ At every election, abstention is a major concern, relief The world. And, inexorably, every five years, it progresses. It broke a new record: on Sunday, 52.49% of registered voters did not go to the polls. This is the lowest participation in the first round of legislative elections under the Fifth Republic, down 1.2 points compared to 2017. »
So, ” this record abstention has major consequences on the ballot, point Le Monde, and in particular on the second round, necessary in the vast majority of constituencies “.
And beyond its impact on the ballot, abstention ” affects multiple constituencies, but some more than others. According to an Ipsos opinion poll published on Sunday, 69% of 18-24 year olds and 71% of 25-34 year olds would not have taken action. The electorate of Jean-Luc Mélenchon in April 2022 has the most abstentionists (50%), behind that of Marine Le Pen (52%), while the electorates of Emmanuel Macron and Valérie Pécresse went more to the ballot boxes (with “only” 39% abstainers) “.
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In addition, note again The world, ” disadvantaged or working-class social backgrounds are those with the most non-voters (61 and 59% respectively), which tallies with the observations that associate the level of income with participation in the polls: the higher their income, the more voters tend to go to the polls to defend their interests “.
” And yetdeplore The Latest News from Alsace, the first round of these legislative elections offered all the conditions to stimulate a civic revival: a rich political offer and the possibility of strengthening the role of parliament. Nothing worked, notes the Alsatian daily. The dropout is structural. For these French people who favor direct action over representative democracy, protest or activism has taken precedence over the ballot. Therefore, no reform seems to be able to initiate reconciliation, not even proportional representation and the consideration of blank and invalid ballots. “.
In a column published by Release, the writer Éric Vuillard wonders: ” a single worker in the Assembly, is that democracy? (…) Even if a deputy is supposed to represent something other than his social position and assume a universal vocation on entering the hemicycle, the simple fact that there is only one worker among the deputies of the last legislature, that business leaders, executives and higher intellectual professions represent more than three quarters of the Assembly, is enough to cast serious doubt on the entire procedure. Mistrust, prejudice or indifference towards the electoral process that we have experienced is one of the forms that this doubt takes, abstention. No matter how much we turn the word representation over twenty times, write all sorts of things on the back, try to make it pleasant, something resists, says Eric Vuillard again. We refuse to participate in the functioning of this curious temperate oligarchy which claims to be a democracy. A single worker and barely 4.6% of employees among the deputies: the representation is thus paid for the erasure of half of the active population. It should be serious enough for Democrats to worry about. »
So, there are 5 days left to convince the abstainers and the voters of the first round
” Faced with Mélenchon, Macron is looking for a strategy “, point Le Figaro. Maybe ” put on his warlord costume with this tour he is doing this week in Romania and Moldova, with why not a visit to Ukraine? »
And for the candidates: go to coal, do ground and more ground to convince…
And to the left, hope is there, tip Humanity : “ if the presidential camp is feverish, it is because it feels that a victory for Nupes next Sunday is not impossible. The left has only a few days left to convince the cohort of abstentionists that they have an extraordinary opportunity to bring social progress back to power “.
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