Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

MAPS: How France voted in the second round of the Presidential elections

Despite Emmanuel Macron’s victory, fractures in France’s political landscape, based on geography, income, and age played out in the second round of the French election, which can be seen in maps and graphics of the latest French voting trends.

Published: 25 April 2022 15:14 CEST
MAPS: How France voted in the second round of the Presidential elections
Election officials count votes at a polling station in Marignana, Corsica. (Photo by Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP)

Emmanuel Macron beat Marine Le Pen in the second round of the French Presidential election with 58.55 percent of the vote, a smaller share than his 2017 victory where he secured 66.1 percent of the vote. Though Macron won, the election highlighted growing ideological differences in France. Recognising these fractures, Macron promised that he is “no longer the candidate of a camp, but the president of all.” 

To see the vote breakdown by département, VisActu created a map, based on a département level breakdown showing the areas that voted for Le Pen (in blue) and Macron (yellow). Inset is the first-round voting map, which adds areas won by the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon in red.

The Interior Ministry has created an interactive version of the map where you can search for the vote in your local area – click HERE to access it. 

Over the last five years there has also been a geographical shift in voting,  with the below map from Franceinfo showing the decline in support for Macron in Brittany.

This election also showed another geographical trend: the east-west divide, which was also apparent in 2017. This is particularly visible in a map produced by Le Parisien:

The divide between the east and west is really a combination of different factors, including the ‘rust belt’ in the north-east of the country, which voted primarily Le Pen in both the first and second rounds of the election. Home to the country’s former industrial and coal-mining areas, it has in recent years seen high levels of unemployment. 

READ ALSO: MAP: How geography affects how French people vote

But it’s not just geography that influences how people vote – age is another big factor.

French daily Le Parisien created this graphic to show generational divides. The youngest and the oldest voter groups (ages 18-24 and over-70s, respectively) strongly prefer Emmanuel Macron, whereas those aged 50-59 narrowly prefer Le Pen.

In the same graphic, Le Parisien also showed how income and education level was reflected in voting patterns, with Marine Le Pen attracting more working class voters than Emmanuel Macron.  

France also saw the highest level of abstention in 50 years, with over 28 percent of people abstaining from voting.

To hear more about the results of the election and the issues that mattered most to voters, listen to The Local’s Talking France podcast, which concluded its election coverage last night.

Member comments

  1. Thanks for the breakdown of how the French voted. After just arriving in Europe, and planning on spending several months in France, we will avoid Le Pen supported areas like the plague. We prefer to spend our money supporting people who aren’t insane. Unfortunately, that means no longer consuming my preferred Bordeaux wines.

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

French PM announces ‘crackdown’ on teen school violence

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Thursday announced measures to crack down on teenage violence in and around schools, as the government seeks to reclaim ground on security from the far-right two months ahead of European elections.

Published: 18 April 2024 15:23 CEST
French PM announces 'crackdown' on teen school violence

France has in recent weeks been shaken by a series of attacks on schoolchildren by their peers, in particularly the fatal beating earlier this month of Shemseddine, 15, outside Paris.

The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party has accused Attal of not doing enough on security as the anti-immigration party soars ahead of the government coalition in polls for the June 9th election.

READ ALSO Is violence really increasing in French schools?

Speaking in Viry-Chatillon, the town where Shemseddine was killed, Attal condemned the “addiction of some of our adolescents to violence”, calling for “a real surge of authority… to curb violence”.

“There are twice as many adolescents involved in assault cases, four times more in drug trafficking, and seven times more in armed robberies than in the general population,” he said.

Measures will include expanding compulsory school attendance to all the days of the week from 8am to 6pm for children of collège age (11 to 15).

“In the day the place to be is at school, to work and to learn,” said Attal, who was also marking 100 days in office since being appointed in January by President Emmanuel Macron to turn round the government’s fortunes.

Parents needed to take more responsibility, said Attal, warning that particularly disruptive children would have sanctions marked on their final grades.

OPINION: No, France is not suffering an unprecedented wave of violence

Promoting an old-fashioned back-to-basics approach to school authority, he said “You break something – you repair it. You make a mess – you clear it up. And if you disobey – we teach you respect.”

Attal also floated the possibility of children in exceptional cases being denied the right to special treatment on account of their minority in legal cases.

Thus 16-year-olds could be forced to immediately appear in court after violations “like adults”, he said. In France, the age of majority is 18, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Macron and Attal face an uphill struggle to reverse the tide ahead of the European elections. Current polls point to the risk of a major debacle that would overshadow the rest of the president’s second mandate up to 2027.

A poll this week by Ifop-Fiducial showed the RN on 32.5 percent with the government coalition way behind on 18 percent.

SHOW COMMENTS