Macron on back foot as local voters go to polls
Voters finally cast their ballots in France’s long-delayed second round of local elections yesterday (Sunday), which appeared set to deliver a mid-term blow to Emmanuel Macron, the president, even as millions were expected to abstain from voting.
Eduard Philippe, Macron’s prime minister, was elected mayor of the Normandy port of Le Havre, but Republic On the March, the president’s party, was expected to fare poorly across the country because of his waning popularity, its lack of strong grassroots support and internal splits that have led to the loss of its absolute parliamentary majority.
The highest-profile battleground was Paris, with Anne Hidalgo, the socialist incumbent, being re-elected as mayor with more than 50 per cent of the vote, nearly 20 points ahead of her nearest rival.
She had the support of the Greens after the president’s party conducted a chaotic campaign in the capital. A sex scandal forced it to replace its candidate, one of Macron’s closest allies.
Hidalgo, 61, campaigned on plans for a greener capital, but angered motorists by closing roads to private cars and promoting cycling to combat heavy pollution.
The coronavirus crisis had pushed the environment higher up the agenda and the Greens were expected to win control of France’s second and third most populous cities, Marseille and Lyon.
The poll took place amid lingering worries over the pandemic and anger over Macron’s handling of the crisis. The president was criticised for going ahead with the first-round vote on March 15 just two days before a strict lockdown.
Turnout sank to a record low and there were fears that it would fall further in the second round, although the spread of the virus has slowed restrictions have been lifted.
In France’s two-round electoral system, the second and final vote would normally take place a week after the first. But the run-off vote was delayed for more than three months because of the pandemic.
Commentators feared that the overall turnout could be even worse than the previous low of 44.3 per cent recorded on March 15. Marine Le Pen’s far-Right National Rally was expected to claim just one big win: the southern city of Perpignan. – The Daily Telegraph and most