France's election: 'strategic' voting among Montreal's French citizens

A French citizen living in Chile holds a ballot paper before casting his vote one day ahead of France's general elections at the Antoine de Saint-Exupery school in Santiago, Chile, Saturday, April 9, 2022. France's first round of the presidential election will take place on April 10, with a presidential runoff on April 24 if no candidate wins outright. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

The line of French citizens in Montreal who came to vote in Saturday's first round of the presidential election wrapped around the Palais des Congrès several times.

At 11 a.m., the Twitter account for the French Consulate in Montreal announced a waiting time of one hour and 45 minutes.

But many people in the crowd said they'd already exceeded that time, waiting in line beneath gray skies. Some thought it would take them three or four hours to get to the polls.

According to an Ipsos-Sopra Steria poll released Friday, incumbent President Emmanuel Macron is leading with 26.5 per cent of voting intentions. But he's lost some feathers since the election was launched, when he expected to count on more than 30 per cent of the vote.

His main opponent and leader of the far-right Rassemblement National party, Marine Le Pen, has quietly climbed to 23 per cent.

The difference between the two favorites is within the margin of error.

Left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon has also seen his support rise during the campaign, reaching 16.5 per cent on Friday.

STRATEGIC VOTING

The vast majority of those interviewed expressed little enthusiasm for their chosen candidate.

"We vote out of spite, not conviction," said one man named Frédérique. Having arrived in Quebec a year and a half ago, he said he had "moved because of that, because I was tired of going in circles."

Next to him, Marie resigned herself to voting for Mélenchon.

"I'll say it very clearly, there are a lot of things I don't like about Mélenchon," she said. But while all the other left-wing candidates are lagging in the polls, "we hope that by making a big score on the left we will put left-wing issues in the debates, because if it's Le Pen and Macron in the second round, we won't talk about ecology, we won't talk about violence against women."

Further down the line, Yasmine is also voting for the first time since she arrived in Montreal three years ago.

"I have the impression that it is really a pattern that is always repeated in France," she said. "It's always a mix between the socialists against the centre-right, the right against the centre-right. We realize that we always vote for the least worst in the end."

This year, she'll give her strategic vote to Macron.

In another section of the line, a Mr. Boisson was is categorical: "We want to get Macron out and that's it. He's a loser." He referred to some of the controversies that have marred the outgoing president's five-year term, including his ties to the consulting firm McKinsey.

Boisson did not want to reveal his choice at the polls, fearing disapproval.

— This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press on April 9, 2022.