French Left torn over whether to vote in Macron-Le Pen second round

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Voters on the French Left are already fed up. Fed up that their candidates did not make it through to the second round of the French presidential election on May 7th, and fed up about being told to vote for a candidate whom they despise - Emmanuel Macron – in order to stop the far right's Marine Le Pen from gaining power. As Lénaïg Bredoux reports, some voters on the Left say that they do not want to give centrist Macron a convincing mandate and that they will either not vote or will leave their ballot paper blank – unless the outcome looks too close to call.

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“Never, do you hear me? I will never vote for that bloke!” This heartfelt cry came last Sunday night from someone who was at the campaign headquarters of the defeated Socialist Party candidate Benoît Hamon where there were tears and a deep sense of disappointment after his elimination from the first round of the presidential election. Faced with the choice between centrist candidate and former merchant banker Emmanuel Macron and the far-right's Marine Le Pen, Hamon himself called for the Front National candidate to be beaten. It was the same message from the Socialist Party and also their allies the Greens.

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