The European elections have started since 8am Sunday 26th May, 2019, in France. The French must appoint their MEPs. We take stock at midday.
D-Day for the European elections. Since 8am, Sunday 26th May, 2019, 47.1 million French voters are invited to go to the polls to elect their MEPs , from the 34 national lists filed .
At 12.00, the participation rate is 19.26%, reports the Ministry of the Interior. A rate up from 2014.
[Élections #européennes2019🇪🇺] Taux de participation à 12h en France métropolitaine : 19,26%
(Pour rappel : 15,70% en 2014 et 14,81% en 2009) pic.twitter.com/72rTTZxTRO— Ministère de l’Intérieur (@Place_Beauvau) 26 May 2019
As a reminder, after the European elections in 2014, the abstention rate was 57.57% in France.
List heads in the voting booth
Earlier this morning, the main candidates in the European elections went to the polls.
This is the case of Jordan Bardella (RN) in Saint-Denis or Nathalie Loiseau (LREM) in Paris.
Ian Brossat , (Communist Party) voted in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. François-Xavier Bellamy (The Republicans), was at the polling station in Versailles around 10am. Raphaël Glucksmann , (PS-Place public), voted in the 10th district of the capital and Manon Aubry (LFI) in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, around 11am.
According to the latest polls, the National Gathering and the Republic in March are neck and neck in the vote.
Other political figures also visited the polls this morning. Like Edouard Philippe in Le Havre, Anne Hidalgo in Paris, Bruno Le Maire in Évreux, or François Hollande in Tulle. Marine Le Pen voted in the middle of the morning at Hénin-Beaumont. Nicolas Sarkozy voted late in the morning in Paris.
A voté ! #Européennes2019 pic.twitter.com/XyJW9nGKxf
— Edouard Philippe (@EPhilippePM) 26 May 2019
As for the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron , he voted in Le Touquet, around 12:30 with his wife Brigitte.
In the regions
Although the abstention rate is expected to be record, some voters were eager to make their voices heard. This is the case of the inhabitants of the municipality of Saint-Pôtan, in Côtes-d’Armor . In 12 minutes, there were 12 ballots.
8h12 à Saint-Pôtan : 12 minutes d’ouverture du bureau de vote et déjà 12 votants. Si on tient ce rythme, on arrivera à 94,6% de participation… ✅ 🗳 🇪🇺 #Electionseuropeenne2019 pic.twitter.com/pG0POU6jeX
— Arnaud Lécuyer (@alecuyer) 26 May 2019
In Gironde , a town hall offered breakfast to voters as described by Le Républicain .
In this commune of the Eure, it would miss a third of the ballots according to our journalist.
Jamais vu une élection 🗳où il manque un tiers des bulletins de vote…Vu qu’on est privé d’internet (pour imprimer son bulletin) dans le quartier, le parti pirate ne fera pas beaucoup de voix à Bizy 🤣 ! #Vernon27 #Electionseuropeenne2019 #tropdelistes #EUelections2019 pic.twitter.com/kidwvkRJ2d
— Lucile Akrich (@LucileAkrich) 26 May 2019
Polling stations in France will close at 6pm in small towns, at 7pm in some, at 8pm in others, particularly in Ile-de-France.
A part of Overseas voted on Saturday. Voting is underway from 6am (Paris time) in Reunion Island and 7am in Mayotte.
At 5pm (local time) Sunday, the participation reached only 26.6% in Wallis and Futuna against 38.7% at the same time in 2014, and it was 16.2% in New Caledonia (against 18, 2%). In Guyana, by contrast, participation was up: 10.2% at 5pm (vs. 7.3%).
