French expats from Japan to Germany shared pictures online with the hashtag #JaiVote, or “I voted. »
On Saturday, thousands showed up to a polling place in Montreal, creating a line that was more than a mile long. They were there to cast their ballots, but not for a Canadian election, as the turnout might have suggested. Rather, it was for a presidential race an ocean away — in France.
The scene was replicated in cities across the world this weekend, despite some being thousands of miles away from France. French expats in the United States and Canada began voting Saturday, a day before the polls opened in France. Expats in other parts joined in the vote on Sunday, some waiting in line for hours, spurred by the significance of the increasingly tense election in their home country.
In a field of 11 candidates, a handful have emerged as front-runners — including far-left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, 65, and the far-right Marine Le Pen, 48 — and only the two candidates who receive the most votes Sunday, assuming no one wins an outright majority, will advance to the final round on May 7.
The result of the presidential election is likely to have dramatic consequences for France, the European Union and international security. Many expats said the election was too critical to sit out.
The voting lines are huge! We’ve been here for 1.5 hours #mtl #frenchelection #france #montreal pic.twitter.com/U7Tz1KEiYM
— Zoé (@zoezeitgeist) April 22,2017
“I’m a bit worried right now about what’s going on in France, ” Manon Harsigny, who waited two hours to cast her vote in Montreal, told CBC News on Saturday. “I know the far right is gaining more and more power and I really, really need to express my opinion, and I don’t want to feel guilty after the election.”
Still others expressed the same reservations about Mélenchon.
“For me the worst is any kind of extreme, ” Lisa Di Jorio told CBC News. “That can be Marine Le Pen but it can also be the extreme opposite of that. The extreme left is not any better.”
[What you need to know about the French presidential election]
There had been concerns that many French citizens would abstain from voting, but that did not appear to be the case as of Sunday afternoon.
