French-Montrealers vote in ‘historic’ election amid surge in far-right

“The last parliamentary election in 2022, we had a (turnout) of about 25 per cent of voters. This time we have prepared for more … we are prepared to welcome a (turnout) of about 50 per cent,” she said.

“There is a very high mobilization from the French community who was really ready to help us organize the vote,” Lapierre said.

Yan Niesing, president of the Union Française de Montréal, an organization that helps French nationals settle in the city, called the election “historic.”

“Everyone wants to have their say,” he said.

Frédéric Mérand, a political science professor at the Montreal Centre for International Studies at Université de Montréal, says the level of engagement in the city is unusual for a French election.

“You see placards and posters and people distributing leaflets on the streets of Montreal for an election that’s taking place in France, so it is significant in that sense,” he said.

The election is an exceptional moment in France’s political history. Macron called the snap election earlier this month following a crushing defeat of his party by the far right in the European parliamentary vote. The first round, on Saturday, could see the country’s first far-right government since the Second World War Nazi occupation — or no majority emerging at all.

The outcome of the vote, following the second round on July 7 and an exceptionally brief campaign, remains highly uncertain as three major political blocs are competing: the far-right National Rally, Macron’s centrist alliance and the New Popular Front coalition that includes centre-left, greens and hard-left forces.

Mérand says the main contenders for Montreal voters are centrist and left-wing parties.

“All the other candidates are expected to be way, way, way behind,” he said.

In 2022, a left-wing alliance won big among Montreal’s French voters, Macron’s party came in second with 25 per cent of the city’s French residents, and the National Rally came away with two per cent. However, with the votes of people in the United States and elsewhere in the district, Macron’s candidate took the seat.

Chedly Belkhodja, a professor at Concordia University’s School of Public and Community Affairs, puts the upswing in voter interest down to a historic contest in France’s polarized society.

“This election will show maybe a side of France that has not been seen for many, many years, which is the rise of the far-right,” he said, adding that parties that used to be on the political fringe have become more normalized and mainstream in recent years.

One of the candidates French-Montrealers can choose from is Olivier Piton, based in Washington D.C., who is with Les Républicains, the centre-right party that former president Nicolas Sarkozy belonged to. Piton says he is the best candidate to represent his constituents in North America, whose concerns differ from French citizens on the mainland.

“Now we need to focus on what is really important for us … how can we defend our rights as French nationals, as residents in Canada or in the U.S.,” he said.

Elias Forneris, candidate for Une Nouvelle Energie pour la France, also resides in the American capital, and has spent much of his life in the United States and the United Kingdom. With little time to prepare following Macron’s announcement to dissolve parliament, he has focused most of his campaigning online.

“I think there’s something that unites the French people living in Canada and the United States. It’s that often times, we’re forgotten by the state in France even though we’re citizens on the same level as them, so what I’d like to do is be able to represent the voices of French people here,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2024.

— With files from The Associated Press.

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

French-Montrealers vote in ‘historic’ election amid surge in far-right

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