Elections 2024 in France, live | Participation in legislative elections in France rises by more than seven points by 12 am | International

Politicians get up early to vote

With almost 49.5 million French people voting this Sunday to elect their new representatives and, therefore, also a new government under a new Prime Minister, among the first to rise are high-ranking political figures who aspire to be part of that new team that leads France.

Prime ministerial candidate for the National Rally (RN), Jordan Bardella, who was the favorite in the polls, voted mid-morning in the wealthy Paris commune of Garches. Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right party, did so around noon in the town of Hénin-Beaumont, her historic stronghold in the Pas de Calais in the north of the country. In the same place, but several hours earlier, practically at the opening of the polls at 8 a.m., so did Marine Tondelier, leader of the EELV environmental party, who plans to return to Paris later to attend a rally of the left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front (NFP), in the French capital’s iconic Republic Square at night.

Outgoing Prime Minister and candidate to reiterate his position for the Macronist coalition Ensemble (Together), Gabriel Attal, has also already exercised his right to vote, same as his predecessor in office and leader of the Macronist Horizons party, Édouard Philippe, who held the head of government during the first years of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency.

François Hollande, the former Socialist president and deputy candidate for the NFP in Corrèze, also voted early, while Eric Ciotti, still president of the conservative Republicans, whose alliance with the RN has caused divisions in the party of Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac, did it in Nice.