Polling stations have opened for the second and final round of the French presidential election after Emmanuel Macron made a last-ditch effort to court young voters in a bid to save his presidency.
France’s presidential election has entered its final stage, with polling stations opening on Sunday morning to allow voters to choose between globalist incumbent Emmanual Macron and national populist challenger Marine Le Pen.
Polls in the race have been continually tightened, with Macron apparently flustered by the prospect of an upset defeat and making a last-ditch attempt to court France’s youth vote in apparent hope of securing re-election.
The sudden publicity blitz, which reportedly saw Macron talk about his love for a rap artist as well as the potential of decentralized blockchain technology, is likely a result of the fact that some polls found Macron to lose the election by a narrow margin. considerable among France’s youth, with the much older voters likely to see the incumbent retain power.
POLITICIAN reports that the French president has shunned mainstream media for the past few days in hopes of speaking to more youth-oriented publications, such as rap publication Booska-P.
In the interview with the rap news outlet, Macron engaged with the issue of “Islamophobia” in France, as well as dealing with sexist violence in the country.
However, it’s unclear what effect, if any, such an interview will have on the president’s polling data, considering the interview had only been viewed 1,627 times at press time, a far cry from the millions that the president has. seeking to conquer
It worked: Over 100,000 French protests against Vax Pass after Macron promised to ‘piss off’ without vaccines https://t.co/TxPTSIgxEy
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 9, 2022
According to a Euronews report, polling stations opened on Sunday morning and will allow French voters to decide on the future of their country until 7:00 p.m. local time, or 8:00 p.m. local time in some urban places.
The broadcaster also noted that there is no absentee or mail-in voting in this election, and that mail-in voting in particular has been banned in the country since 1975 over fears that the voting method could be used to rig the election. .
A photo ID is also required to vote in the election.
Around 48.8 million people have the opportunity to vote in the elections, while French citizens living abroad will also be able to vote in the elections through the country’s consulates and embassies.
Preliminary results regarding the election are expected to come out on Sunday night, although a final official result may take a bit longer as most votes are ballots that will need to be counted by hand.
Polls for the race still predict that Emmanuel Macron is more likely to be the victor when the dust settles, as the incumbent is expected to finish six to ten points ahead of his populist challenger, but even this would be a far-fetched performance. worse. than in 2017, when Macron defeated Le Pen with around 66 percent of the vote.
Le Pen pushes the vacillating Macron in the debate on immigration, Islamism and the economyhttps://t.co/xIhWQMXdNy
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 21, 2022