Michael Cosgrove
Ballot box, Lyon France
Nicolas Sarkozy must have slept well last night. He had every right to, seeing as he and his Government’s majority UMP party had had a remarkably good day in the elections, winning 28 percent of the vote after what is generally accepted, even by the opposition, as being a very well-run campaign.
That’s an extremely good result for the current French leadership, stuck, like leaders all over Europe and the world in a spiral of near-recession, increasing unemployment, higher prices and voter resentment at the current state of national and international affairs. In other words, the perfect recipe for a voter revolt.
But it didn’t happen.
The Socialists on the other hand must have had nightmares. This was an awful result for them, with just 16 percent of the vote. In the last Euro-Elections they obtained 28 percent. Their campaign this year was disorganised and chaotic, with no clear campaign theme. On top of that, general apathy and frustration amongst their voters after a year of internal leadership and personal battles is said to have reduced their motivation to vote.
They weren’t the only big losers though. Françoise Bayrou’s centrist party, the Modem, got a 8 percent hammering which could partially be put down to his extremely aggressive attacks on other parties and politicians, which are considered to have been excessive.
The Europe Ecology party was deservedly very happy with its 16 percent, that which placed it neck and neck with the socialists for the first time in a French election This score is interpreted as being partially due to vote-switching from disappointed socialists.
The extreme-right National Front was reduced to just 6 percent of the vote. An expected result given the party’s financial problems and, like the Socialists, internal squabbling.
In terms of seats in the European Parliament, France has 72, with 30 going to the UMP, 14 each to the Socialists and Ecologists, 6 to the Modem and 3 to the National Front.
A round-up of the results in some other countries later, but first, here’s a look at how France goes to vote, seen through my eyes as I went to vote myself.
My local polling booth was installed in the Claudius Berthelier primary school just two minutes walk down the street.
So off I went, passport and voting card in hand.
Outside the gate to the polling station there are hoardings with enough space for posters from each party running in the election. They are the only posters allowed. Here are a few of them.
Michael Cosgrove
Election campaign posters, Lyon France
There were a fair amount of people voting when I got there at 6:30pm, a popular time to vote in France.
Here’s what I saw when I walked in the door. It’s nice to get smiles when you walk in any door, and that’s particularly true on voting days. Here is a voting desk, one of several. There are quite a few people around, which is good to see.
Michael Cosgrove
Polling Station, Lyon France
In French elections you have to begin the voting process by collecting one of each party’s printed manifesto, each approximately the same size – A5, and in one ink colour only, from a long table. Then, after reading them, if such is your wish or need, although all voters get envelopes delivered to their homes containing all the glossy paper deluxe version party election manifestos days before the vote so they often know who proposed what before they go to vote, you take the manifesto, along with a voting envelope, into a voting booth.
And once in there the destiny of the whole of Europe is in your shaking hands. You turn it all over in your head just one more time, or not, as the case may be, put your chosen candidate’s sheet into the envelope, and seal it. Europe is yours. As you can see, it is permitted in France to vote in white running shoes or black leather ones. Other colours are allowed too.
Michael Cosgrove
Polling booths, Lyon France
Then comes the bit where you drop your vote in the box. First you go to the vote bureau and the lady there asks for your voting card, checks the reference number on it, finds your name in the vote register book and gets you to sign against it. Your voting card is then stamped and given back to you.
That duly done, the lady next to the signature lady opens the flap on the ballot box and asks you to vote. When you have put your envelope in the box a very important thing happens. She says “A voté” – “Has voted” in a loud and clear voice. This is a very important gesture here, to the point where those operating ballot boxes must say it by law, and it is seen as being the confirmation of your vote and your democratic participation in the election.
Those words were said to me by Mme Chantal Braquet, one of the Vote Bureau Presidents. She is the lady in the picture at the top of the article, her hands jealously guarding her ballot box. The lady in her company worked at the same voting desk as she did.
Mme Françoise Rivoire is a Municipal Council member in Lyon’s City Hall, and the Adjoint Mayor of Gerland, where she is also a delegate for the District’s Green areas in the Road and Refuse Collection Department. She is at the polling station as a Vote Bureau President.
She explains how elections are organised in France.
“Polling stations open at 8am here, and they close at 6pm in rural areas and either 7 or 8pm in major cities. All polling stations must include an elected and serving representative amongst its on-site administrators. That’s my job here. Vote Bureau Presidents make sure that no irregularities are committed at the vote desk and they also oversee the ballot count.”
“Do you announce the results here?”
“Oh no, that’s done at City Hall. A member of each vote bureau staff, appointed by City Hall, fills out an official document after the count and takes this document there in person. City Hall officials announce the results when they are all in and have been counted collectively, which means at about 10pm.”
Here is Mme Rivoire, in the centre of the photo, surrounded by her vote bureau staff.
Michael Cosgrove
Polling Station staff, Lyon France
She goes on to explain who else is present as staff.
“Each vote bureau has an Assessor, one of whose jobs it is to advise people on the voting procedure if necessary. Also, each political party with a candidate in a given district or village has the right to send Delegates to polling stations. They check that things are being done correctly and that voting is taking place without undue influence.”
Before coming to vote I had read the latest exit polls on the internet. They showed a massive 60 percent abstention rate. I asked her for her reaction and why she thought the figure was so high.
“That’s terrible” she said unequivocally. “This is an extremely high figure. Much too high in fact. People don’t seem to realise how important a part Europe plays in their lives. People are fed up with politics and the crisis too right now. Moreover, the campaign was too short and under-exposed. I would estimate a slightly better turnout in this particular polling station”
That seems to be a generally accepted point of view, and is shared in most of the post-election analysis.
Mme Rivoire has to take her leave because the ballot count is about to start. I leave and notice that last-minute voters are still arriving. Here are some of them, on their way out of the building, having just voted. The lady on the left answers my question on how she feels about the election, saying “Oh, I’m sick and tired of it all to be honest. I only came to vote because it’s my duty."
Michael Cosgrove
EU election voters, Lyon France
And, like myself, she was carrying her voting card, duly stamped with the date of the election, proving that we had both changed Europe’s destiny. Or at least tried to.
Here’s my card, with, underneath the words “Republique Française” the words “Voter est un droit, c’est aussi un devoir civique.” That means “Voting is a right, and it’s also a civic duty.”
Michael Cosgrove
French voting card
Finally, here is a quick roundup of what happened elsewhere in Europe.
Voter turnout was at a record low in much of Europe, with just 43 percent of about 388 million eligible voters going to the polls. They tended to vote for the dominant center-right coalitions or express their frustration with the current economic situation by voting for fringe groups. Socialist parties did very badly in general. The Centre-Right not only governs 21 of the 27 EU member states, it now has an even stronger grip on the EU parliament.
Britain’s Labour Party got its worst drubbing in 99 years in a national election and Gordon Brown now seems doomed. The Austrian far-right Freedom Party doubled its vote from that of the last elections in 2004 and the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party did the same. The far-right made gains in the Netherlands too. Merkel’s centre-right formation held up well, and Berlusconi was the winner in Italy, although recent scandals meant that voter turnout there was amongst the lowest in the Union.
Whatever the results, let’s hope that those elected get down to some serious work, and quickly. For there is a lot of work to do if the European Union wants to regain credibility in the eyes of the 57 percent of its citizens who left their voting cards untouched yesterday.
