French presidential election, 2022

[TheTide]

The instant reactions to this are almost unspeakably stupid. The first round is about who gets in the top two, not who tops the poll (as nice as it may make the top-placed candidate feel). The other point is that Le Pen topping the poll in the first round might not necessarily be good for her - it would give off a stronger impression of her being a president-in-waiting and might make a scare campaign by anti-Le Pen forces easier.

[TheTide]

Amusing that Pécresse and Hidalgo are being referred to as 'mainstream' candidates, when these results clearly show that they are fringe candidates.

[TheTide]

Le Pen might suffer from a fair few voters getting cold feet syndrome. There also wasn't much evidence of a shy Le Pen factor in the first round.