In interviews at Paris polling stations, French citizens expressed little real joy in the vote but felt that France’s future is so uncertain that they needed to do their civic duty.
“Whoever is elected, things are going to be hard,” says a middle-aged Frenchman, Angelo Benkaddour, outside a voting station in Paris’ 10th district. “What’s happening in Greece and Spain [economic woes], it is coming here.”
The real news is the massive support the far right got. Nearly one in five voted for Marine Le Pen (the daughter of the old ultra-nationalist Jean Marie Le Pen). That is going to send shock-waves through France and Europe.