Electoralabstention occurs inFrench elections,French referendums and local consultations inFrance.

"Registration on the electoral roll is mandatory" under Article L9 of theElectoral Code [fr], but no sanctions are provided for.^[1] Since 1997, the law provides for the automatic registration on the electoral roll of the municipality of residence of persons who meet the required age conditions.

In France, voting is not mandatory in the legal sense: "voting is a right, it is also a civic duty" is written on thevoter invitation card.^[2] It is only mandatory insenatorial elections for major electors (deputies andmunicipal,departmental andregional councillors) who are fined 100euros in the event of abstention, since a law passed in 2004.^[3]

The abstention rate can be calculated in different ways. In France, the ratio is established by comparing the number of citizens who abstained from voting to the number of those registered on the electoral lists, on the date of the election. People who are not registered on the electoral lists are therefore not counted in the abstention figures. Blank and invalid votes are also not counted.^{[citation needed]}

"Registration on the electoral roll is mandatory" under Article L9 of the Electoral Code, but no sanctions are provided for.^[1] Since 1997, the law provides for the automatic registration on the electoral roll of the municipality of domicile of persons who meet the required age conditions. This concerns young people in the year following their electoral majority.

According to severalINSEE studies, around 4.9 million French people are not registered on the electoral rolls or believe they are not (2004 data), a figure which varies between 10% and 13.3% of the electorate over the last nine years.

In 2007, theelectorate [fr] was estimated to comprise 44.5 million voters for 62 million inhabitants.

In 2016, the electorate was estimated to consist of 44.834 million voters for 66 million inhabitants.^{[citation needed]}

In 2018, the electoral body was estimated to include 45.448 million voters for 67 million inhabitants.^[4]

At 14 April 2019, the electoral body comprised 47.148 million voters for 67 million inhabitants.^[5]

The abstention rate has varied considerably since the introduction ofdirect universal (male) suffrage [fr] in France. The enthusiasm perceptible at the1848 French Constituent Assembly election (18.3% abstention) quickly gave way to disenchantment, especially after theJune Days uprising and the45 centime tax [fr]. From the summer, abstentionism soared during local elections: around 37% in municipal elections, then 62% for general councils, and finally 73% for district councils. Thepresidential election in December regained some favour, with only 25% abstention. But from 1849, thelegislative elections experienced a decline: 32% abstentionism, or 14 points more than a year earlier. The sequel was mixed: the very low abstention rates observed in each plebiscite of 1851, 1852 and 1870 were contrasted by a civic languor in the legislative elections, against which the Second Empire tried to fight. Theliberalization [fr] of the regime would allow a return to civic life; abstentionism fell to barely more than 25% in the municipal elections of 1865,^{[citation needed]} and to 22% in the last legislative elections, those of1869.

TheFrench Third Republic saw the triumph of civic-mindedness in the main election, the legislative elections, but also, a much more counterintuitive phenomenon, in the municipal elections. With ups and downs for the former, while participation in the latter never weakened (from 74.5% in 1874 to 78% in 1912).According to the expression dedicated to the legislative elections, the combat elections (1876,1877,1885,1889,1902,1906) contrasted with the appeasement elections (1881, 1893, 1898, 1910, 1914) among other things by their better participation. On the other hand, participation in the two other types of election practiced at the time (that of the district and departmental councils) fell until the turn of the century, then remained stable. Within the Third Republic, theinterwar period was the golden age of participation. As early as 1924, the legislative elections saw abstentions drop to less than 17% of registered voters; the municipal elections followed very closely, at less than 17.5%. Finally, the 1930s saw an exacerbation of political life, to the point of reaching an absolute record for participation in legislative elections in France in1936 (only 15.8% abstention inmetropolitan France in the first round, 15.6% in the second round), while participation in the election of district councils tended to catch up with that of general councils, which itself approached that in the legislative elections (22.5% in 1937, the absolute record for participation in departmental elections in France).^{[citation needed]}

The rest is much more eventful. The repetition of political elections in 1946 is considered by all historians to have tired public opinion. However, the abstentions in thelegislative elections of November 1946 did not reach 22%. On the other hand, the disappearance of the district councils did not prevent the departmental elections, now called cantonal, from gradually returning to their cruising speed of the Third Republic, with more than 40% abstention.

The repeated consultations from 1958 to 1962 ended up causing a real civic decline, with a very notable 31.3% abstention rate in thelegislative elections of November 1962 - as would be all rates in legislative elections exceeding 30%. But it was the introduction of direct suffrage in the election of the President of the Republic that would end up widening the gaps in participation between the different types of ballot. Not immediately, but after thelegislative elections of 1986, the last to be above 70% participation. In the subsequent period, there would sometimes be more than double the abstention rate in cantonal, regional or European elections compared to the main election of theFrench Fifth Republic, the presidential election.

From 1833 to 2014, this ballot was called “cantonal elections”, then “departmental elections” from 2015 following thecantonal redistricting of 2014 [fr].

This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Electoral abstention in France" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In France, abstention would be influenced by a feeling of political non-representation, on four points:

• Peaceful transition of power seems quite useless when it does not solve major problems like unemployment^{[citation needed]}
• The distrust of the French population towards political representatives due to the succession ofscandals^[12] andfinancial affairs.
• The behaviour of political parties would distance politicians from the real problems of society.^[13]
• Voter disengagement.^[14]

The level of socio-professional category would affectabstentionism inFrance: the people with “low”socioeconomic status abstain more while the people with a high level of education are more involved in politics.^[15]

In a study published in early 2015, political science researcher Vincent Pons states that: "We often tend to overestimate the political motives for abstention, while the sociological component is also very strong ." While participation was homogeneous in 2012, participation fluctuated at the national level between 64% and 94% (a range of 30%), in 2014, the spectrum widened to between 34% and 82% (a range of 48%) based on the2012 presidential election and the2014 European elections. Using the non-specific case ofPerpignan and thePyrénées-Orientales department , he observed that the range is all the greater when overall participation is low, particularly in urban areas. Thus, the differential goes from 4 points in 2012 to 9 points in 2014 for the Pyrénées-Orientales. In the case of the city of Perpignan, he observes that in 2014 the decline particularly hit the areas where the winning party in the 2012 presidential election had won.^[16]

While the second round of the2017 legislative elections set a new record for abstention for this type of vote, Céline Braconnier believes that she was helped by the previously un-divisive profile of President Emmanuel Macron: "Many tell us they expect to be 'hit hard'. ButEmmanuel Macron is not divisive enough to mobilize them against him. These abstainers are in a state of indifference tinged with apprehension, but not in the opposition.^[17] Abstention is particularly high among those under 30: " Young people no longer vote when they don't understand why they are being asked to go to the polls. Older people still go out of duty and can't bring their children to vote. For the presidential election [2017], we saw families vote. There, only parents voted".^[18] In 2023,Jean Massiet [fr], a political popularization streamer on theTwitch platform , estimates that "young people love politics […], on the other hand [they] shun traditional forms of politics, that is to say the good oldballot paper, membership cards to a party or a union".^[19]

In 2017, abstention during the presidential election amounted to 22.23% on April 23 (first round) and at 25.44% the May 7 (second round) or more than one in four French voters.^[20]

Voters were able to vote in four elections: two for the presidential election and two for the legislative elections.Insee analysed abstentions in these elections:^[21] 14% of voters abstained in all rounds of voting and 86% voted in at least one of the four rounds; 35% voted in all rounds of the elections and 51% voted intermittently. Two out of ten registered voters only voted in the two rounds of the presidential election. The legislative elections mobilize much less than the presidential elections: 85% of registered voters voted at least once in the presidential election compared to 58% in the legislative elections. Registered voters who systematically abstain in the 2017 elections are more often young (under 30) or old (80 or over), they are also more often without qualifications, they have a lower standard of living and are more often inactive or workers than other registered voters.

Political science researchers Céline Braconnier and Jean-Yves Dormagen noted that during the 2017 presidential election, the two test polling stations they studied over the long term, one in the Parisian district ofThe Marais and the other in the Cosmonautes district ofSaint-Denis, that participation reached 85.3% in the first and only 65.2% in Saint-Denis. They noted that a retired person with a higher education qualification, aged between 65 and 70, had a 98% probability of having voted in the first round of the2012 presidential election, while a non-qualified worker, aged between 18 and 24, had a 33% probability of having abstained. Youth, lack of education, as well as belonging to the working classes are all factors that encourage abstention.^[22] If the office studied in Saint-Denis placedJean-Luc Mélenchon in the lead with 48.5% of the votes and that of Paris Emmanuel Macron with 46.1% of the votes, the researchers note that the difference in participation benefits the candidate ofEn Marche!.^[22]

In 2022, a presidential election (2 rounds) and legislative elections (2 rounds) took place. INSEE devoted a study to abstention^[23] during these elections, which revealed:

1. permanence or intermittence of abstention: 16% of registered voters did not vote in any round of these elections, 36% voted in all rounds and 48% voted intermittently.
2. Higher abstention for legislative elections: "for all ages, it is more common to vote in the presidential election than in the legislative elections, but the preference for the presidential election is all the more marked when the registered voters are young. Thus, among registered voters under 30, 74% voted at least once in the presidential election compared to 35% in the legislative elections, a gap of almost 40 points."
3. Participation increases with the standard of living and qualifications: "30% systematic abstention among registered non-graduates, compared to 10% among higher education graduates. Systematic abstention is particularly high in priority neighbourhoods of the city policy and in theoverseas departments.

Céline Braconnier and Jean-Yves Dormagen have studied over a long period the city of Cosmonauts inSaint-Denis, in the northern suburbs ofParis.^[24][15]

In the second round of the2017 French legislative election, not one of the fifteen registered voters in theDrôme village ofPennes-le-Sec cast a ballot, representing an abstention rate of 100%.^[25] On the contrary, all the voters, around forty people, in the village ofLe Champ-de-la-Pierre inOrne have taken to voting in every election, representing a participation rate of 100%.^{[citation needed]}

• L'abstention aux élections sous la Ve République
• Laurent de Boissieu (18 September 2016)."Participation et abstention aux élections".France politique. Retrieved14 April 2017.
• https://www.dicopart.fr/abstention-2013
• Frédéric Salmon."Une rétrospective sur la participation électorale en France".geoelections. Retrieved17 December 2024.

• Voting
• Elections in France
• Politics of France
• Political science
• Political sociology

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from April 2025
• Articles needing additional references from April 2025
• All articles needing additional references