国际英语资讯:News Analysis: Historic abstention levels put legitimacy of future French assembly into ques_时事

国际英语资讯:News Analysis: Historic abstention levels put legitimacy of future French assembly into ques

"The new majority should not make the mistake of believing that voters have given them a blank check. They were rather lucky there wasn't strong mobilization against them. They are also benefiting from the goodwill which surrounds Emmanuel Macron, especially on his first international actions which were well-received," he said.

"Mechanically, this strong abstention should be favorable to LREM, whose base is more mobilized. But the other side of the coin, it's to find oneself with a badly elected National Assembly," the pollster summarized.

The inversion of the election calendar is often mentioned by pundits to explain the abstention rate.

Since the 2001 reform which placed the two legislative rounds in the immediate aftermath of the presidential election, when the term of the head of state was set at five years, the level of abstention during legislative elections has only increased and the vote functions more like a confirmation.

"The presidential election is the only one, in our system, which is mobilizing," said Jean-Yves Dormagen, political science professor at Montpellier University.

A whole series of factors have contributed to the abstention record set on June 11.

The electoral sequence, which began in autumn 2016 with the primaries on the right, has probably contributed to a "democratic weariness" among voters, along with the growing defiance toward the political class which only worsened during a campaign riddled with scandals.