Macron says all parties must learn from low turnout in regional French elections

French president Emmanuel Macron and far-right politician Marine Le Pen suffered embarrassing defeats in Sunday’s regional elections

French president Emmanuel Macron votes in the regional election in Le Touquet on 27 June (AFP/Getty)

All political parties must learn from the low voter turnout in Sunday’s regional elections, said president Emmanuel Macron, after the numbers taking part in the second round of votes hit a record low.

Pollsters estimated that only around 35 per cent of eligible voters casting their ballots. They also found that nearly 90 per cent of France’s youngest eligible voters did not take part.

These elections are the first for Mr Macron’s En Marche party, which did not exist when the last elections were held in 2015. As En Marche failed to win control of a single region, the result is being described as “humiliating”.

Similarly, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party did not win control over a single region, including the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, which she had hoped to win to boost her presidential hopes for 2022.

Instead, centre-right and centre-left regional politicians have been the winners of the elections. Among them, northern conservative Xavier Bertrand beat the far-right party by more than 25 percentage points in the Hauts-de-France region.

Mr Bertrand has hinted that he intends to challenge Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen in the April 2022 presidential election.

Speaking with Mr Bertrand at a visit to a new electric car battery plant in Douai, northern France, on Monday, Mr Macron said: “The abstention rate says a lot of things. We must all draw the consequences from it.”

A government source said a cabinet reshuffle was not expected following the humiliating election night for Mr Macron, but added that a few adjustments were possible.