Voting in the long-awaited second round of the municipal elections, which was postponed from March because of the coronavirus crisis, took place across France on Sunday. Some 16.5 million voters were able to vote in around 4,800 towns and cities where councils were not elected in the first round on March 15th. The results produced two main themes: a strong performance from the Green EELV party who claimed a 'green wave' is now sweeping across France, though they owe some of their success to alliances with the Socialist Party and other groups on the Left. The other is a record low turnout, which according to estimates may have been just 40%. Below is Mediapart English's coverage of events as they unfolded.
Broadcaster FRANCE 24 summarises how the daily French press titles on Monday reacted to the end of the country's two-month lockdown on public movement.
France held nationwide local elections on Sunday in the extraordinary conditions of ramped up measures to slow the accelerating coronavirus outbreak in the country. These included the shutdown of a vast number of public sites at midnight on Saturday, including shops, cafés, restaurants and entertainment venues, while the virus crisis has now made the holding of the final second round next weekend in doubt. Follow here the principal results and developments from these most unusual elections.
France went to the urns on Sunday in the first of two-round elections to decide the makeup of the councils of France’s 13 newly-formed ‘super’ regions. The poll, held December 6th and 13th, is an important test of the French political map, 18 months away from presidential and parliamentary elections. The final results show a massive victory for the far-right Front National, which garnered the biggest share of the vote nationwide and goes into the second round next Sunday with its candidates in the lead in six regions. This is Mediapart’s coverage in English of results and reaction after the first-round vote on Sunday, with an update of final scores on Monday.
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