From 8am on Sunday 26th May 2019, voters are called to vote to elect 79 French MEPs who will sit in the European Parliament. Who will come first?
Polling stations open Sunday at 8am in metropolitan France for European elections heavy issues including national, with referee abstention, which promises to be massive.
Nearly 47 million voters are called to the polls to designate the 79 French MEPs, five more than in 2014, after the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. The last five elected representatives, however, will have to wait until the Brexit is effective to sit.
The European Parliament has a total of 751 members, elected by some 400 million citizens of the 28 countries of the Union.
Security around polling sites
After the parcel bomb explosion in Lyon on Friday – an unclaimed act that left 13 people injured – the Interior Minister asked the prefects to increase the security of public places. Patrols could be reinforced around some offices.
The poll in France will be closed at 18:00 in small towns, at 19:00 in some, at 20:00 in others, especially in Ile-de-France.
A part of Overseas voted on Saturday. Voting is underway in Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna and New Caledonia.
At noon on Sunday, the participation was 11.77% in Wallis-et-Futuna against 15.57 %% at the same time in 2014, and it was 8.13% in New Caledonia against 9.56% there. is five years old.
Polling stations must open at 6am (Paris time) in Reunion and at 7am in Mayotte.
The European elections are not very enthusiastic and in 2014 the percentage of voters only reached 42.4% in France (42.6% in the EU). This year, participation would be at the same low, despite a surge of mobilization in recent days.
34 lists
Thirty-four lists – a record – are in the running , only half of which come from traditional parties. Two lists come from the Yellow Vests , which were still Saturday for a 28th act about 12,500 in France according to the Interior, the lowest mobilization.
Throughout the European Union, the official results will only be published at 11:00 pm, the closing time of the poll in Italy, the last country to close its offices. However, starting at 8:00 pm, the pollsters ‘estimates – based on the first ballots counted in the test offices, and not the voters’ statements as in a survey – will reveal the voting trends.
The European Parliament has planned to publish its first projections on the future composition of the hemicycle from 8:00 pm as well.
A flight of the nationalist and populist movements is expected, which should make lose ground to the two most important groups in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party (EPP, right pro-European), current first force, and the Party Socialist European ( PSE).
Right and left have shared power almost continuously since 1979 in the Strasbourg Parliament, a key element in the development of European legislation. The political family that will take the lead on Sunday will naturally claim the presidency of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm – a post occupied by Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker since 2014.
RN and LREM elbow-to-elbow
In France, for these first intermediate elections of the five-year Emmanuel Macron, the list of the National Gathering led by Jordan Bardella could ahead that of the Republic in Marche Nathalie Loiseau , with an advance oscillating between 0.5 and 2.5 points according to the polls, having been for a long time elbow-to-elbow, and always far ahead of the other lists.
To vote RN is “the certainty of bringing down the government” and “stopping Macron’s policy,” says Marine Le Pen. His party came in first with nearly 25% of the vote five years ago, before the UMP (now LR).
Polarizing the choice between progressives and nationalists, Emmanuel Macron is strongly committed to the campaign to ensure that the RN “is not in the lead.” A setback could force him to reshuffle his government team and review the tempo of his reforms.
The president will slip his ballot in the box Sunday noon in Le Touquet (Pas-de-Calais), and will be at the Elysee for the evening.
The Republicans behind François-Xavier Bellamy hope to win the third place with 12.5 to 14% of the vote.
The other candidates have struggled to emerge in the countryside. Scattered in no less than five lists (PCF, LFI, Generations, PS / Place public, EELV), the left in particular appeared weaker and divided than ever.
