A majority of French-Israelis voted for François Fillon, the prime minister and presidential candidate of the center-right Republicans, who failed to advance to the runoff elections next month, the French Embassy in Tel Aviv says.
Some 60 percent — more than 5,000 people — voted for Fillon.
Francois Fillon, center, the French presidential candidate for the right-wing Les Republicains party, gestures after a speech at a campaign meeting in Nice, southeastern France, April 17, 2017. (AFP Photo/Valery Hache)
In the general election, he only garnered around 20 percent, coming in a distant third to centrist Emmanuel Macron and the leader of the far-right Front National party, Marine Le Pen.
In Israel, Macron came in second, getting 31 percent, with 2,590 votes, while Le Pen garnered only 3.7 percent, or 311 votes.
Macron, who in the overall election got 23.7 percent, and Le Pen with 21.5 percent will face off in a second round of voting on May 7.
One hundred and thirty-four French-Israelis — less than two percent — voted for far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who in the general election came in fourth with 19.6 percent. Benoit Hamon, the candidate of President Francois Hollande’s Socialists, garnered less than one percent in Israel, compared with the 6.3 percent he received in the general election.
According to the embassy, 8,434 French citizens voted on Sunday. Nearly 58,000 people are eligible to vote, which means that voter participation in Israel was remarkably low at 14.6 percent.
— Raphael Ahren
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