Rebukes For Macron, Le Pen As Voters Avoid 1st Round Of Reg. Election

Both President Emmanuel Macron's Republique En March (REM) and Marine Le Pen's right-wing nationalist National Rally (RN) performed well below expectations in the first round of elections for France's regional presidencies held on Sunday according to preliminary results. The outperformers were France's historically dominant political groups, the centre-right Gaullist Les Republicains (LR) and their allies, and the centre-left Socialist Party (PS) and their allies.

• The RN came in first place in the first round in only one province, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the far south-east of the country. This compares starkly with the last regional elections held in 2015, when the then-National Front came first in six regions in the first round vote.
• REM and its allies are not leading in any regions, and in the north eastern Hauts-de-France region the party looks set to fail to make the second round (where winning just 10% of the vote is required).
• Alongside the poor performance of the two parties expected to make it through to the second round of the presidential election in 2021, the major story of the election was the poor turnout. Initial estimates put turnout at just 32%, well down on the 49% recorded in 2015 and 53% in 2010. LR and PS were able to exploit this low turnout in their historic heartlands to secure victories in areas where they are incumbents heading into the second round.
• Focus this week will turn to moderate parties that came in third place or below in the first round. Many will be under pressure to withdraw from the second round and lend their support to other moderates in order to keep the RN candidate from winning power, although there is no guarantee such an agreement will take place.