April 10 update: relief so far with the first round results (subject to change but putting Macron five points ahead) …
This is my last look at the French presidential elections for The National before voting starts on Sunday. I am, as ever, grateful to the editor for permitting its reproduction here.My own efforts to vote have come to nothing. Unwillingly, as one able to take part in a French election for the first time having obtained dual citizenship, I'll be counted among the large number of expected abstentions. My constituency is that covered by the French Consulate in London and I am in the south of France. I was unable to vote by proxy as I would have needed to find another London voter to help.
So the far right can breathe a sigh of relief. Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour need have no fear, after all, of my vote for pretty much anyone but either of them. As it happens, I would have gone without massive enthusiasm but faute de mieux for Emmanuel Macron, a decent if aloof statesman. He is to the right of my own political tastes but the main left candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon, is too far the other way and the Parti Socialiste's Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, languishes on the level of support cranky contenders attract in the UK ...
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