402 seats to the party of the right “Union for the presidential majority”, only 175 seats to the left: such, in brief, was the result of the elections to France’s National Assembly, from which the far-right National Front of Jean Marie Le Pen is excluded, after the 18 % share of the vote it reached in the first round of the presidential elections on 21 April. The result of the poll leaves no doubt as to the victors, but it does raise eyebrows about the very high percentage of abstention, approximately 40%. A large group of Christian youth organizations, on the eve of the elections, had emphasized the importance of the vote after the shock of 21 April: “We ask the political parties and the candidates in the legislative elections to urge the electoral participation of the young”. According to Isabelle Deschard, president of the “Alliance with Christians in politics”, an umbrella organization comprising members of the Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches, “the absolute majority reached by the right could represent the occasion to undertake some necessary reforms. But there’s also the risk of the party that supports the Gvernment becoming its slave”. Abstention, points out Deschard, “penalized the left more than the right. The left failed to arouse the interest of the young in the legislative elections. There’s an urgent need to promote the community values of participation”.
