French election reflects popular disappointment with systemic parties — Russian senator
Sunday’s presidential election in France has confirmed the trend away from classic politics, as most French voters showed their disappointment with systemic political parties and a strong wish to see change, Russia’s Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev said on Monday.
“The French election has demonstrated that ever more people get disillusioned with systemic parties. It should be remembered that [the incumbent French President Emmanuel] Macron at a certain point emerged out of nowhere. This trend clearly manifested itself then and now it has merely grown stronger,” Kosachev told TASS.
In his opinion, the crushing defeat suffered by the Socialists and the Republicans, who scored less than six percent of votes on aggregate “indicates that French society is split and aspires for change.”
“This signifies a further drift away from what is known as classic politics. Let me say once again that Macron continues to symbolize departure from classic politics. Or still more radical change, associated with Madame Le Pen [presidential candidate from the National Rally party]. That the two politicians have shown comparable results indicates that France and all of us will see very remarkable two weeks,” Kosachev said.
On April 10, France held the first round of the presidential election, which saw a 75% turnout. There were twelve candidates contesting the presidency. With 97% of the votes counted, the incumbent Emmanuel Macron (27.6% of the votes) and Marine Le Pen (23.4%) qualified for the second round.
The runoff is due on April 24. Opinion polls conducted after the publication of early returns from the first round say Macron is likely to win the race by a 51%-54% majority vote.
TASS
