Macron faces far-right challenge as polls open in round 1 of French presidential election

PARIS – Polls opened across France on Sunday for the country’s first round presidential electionwhere President Emmanuel Macron is seeking a second five-year term, with a strong challenger from the right.

Up to 48 million eligible voters will choose between 12 candidates. France operates a manual voting system: voters are obliged to cast their ballots in person, whose ballots are counted by hand when voting is over.

Polls opened at 8am local time (2am ET) Sunday and ended at 7pm (1pm ET) in most places and an hour later in some larger cities.

Unless someone gets more than half of the vote nationally, there will be a second round and a decision between the top two candidates on Sunday, April 24.

To combat the April cold, voters lined up to cast their ballots at a polling station south of Paris on Sunday before it opened. Once inside, they put their paper ballots in envelopes and then in transparent boxes, some wearing masks or using hand sanitizer as part of the event. Covid-19 measure.

Besides Macron, the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and far-left fire representative Jean-Luc Melenchon are among the prominent figures competing for President Elysee.

Macron, a politically inclined, for months looked like a jolt to becoming France’s first president in 20 years of winning a second term. But that prospect dimmed in the closing stages of the campaign as the pain of inflation and pump, food and energy prices returned to be the dominant election theme for many low-income households. . They could lead many voters to fall into the arms of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Macron’s political enemy.

Macron has surpassed Le Pen by landslide to become the youngest president of France in 2017. The victory for the former banker – now 44 – is seen as a victory against populist, nationalist politics, which comes after Donald Trumpelection to the White House and British vote left the European Union, both in 2016.

With populist Viktor Orban won the fourth semester in a row As prime minister of Hungary days ago, eyes are now on France’s rising far-right candidates – especially the leader of the National Election Organization Le Pen, who wants to ban the wearing of scarves. Muslim headscarves on the streets and Muslim and kosher butchers, while drastically reducing immigration from outside Europe. This election has the potential to reshape the identity of post-war France and show whether European populism is on the rise or in decline.

Meanwhile, if Macron wins, it will be seen as a victory for the European Union. Observers say Macron’s re-election will create real possibilities for increased cooperation and investment in European security and defense – especially with a new pro-EU German government.

With war On the eastern edge of the EU, French voters will vote in a presidential election whose results will have international significance. France is the second economy of the 27-member bloc, the only economy with veto power of the United Nations Security Council and the bloc’s sole nuclear power. And as President of Russia Vladimir Putin continuing the war in Ukraine, French power will help shape Europe’s response.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has provided an opportunity for Macron to project his influence on the international stage and make his mark in favor of NATO in the election debates. Macron is the only frontrunner to support the coalition while other candidates have differing views on France’s role in the coalition. Melenchon is among those who want to give it up altogether, saying it creates nothing but instability and instability.

Such a development would deal a blow to an alliance built to protect members during the emerging Cold War 73 years ago.

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here