A Barber Shop Chat on the French Elections

A French voter passes identification posters on his way to vote in the first round of the 2022 French presidential election in Montreal on April 9, 2022. Peter McCabe/The Canadian Press via AP

Commentary

The day after the first round of the French elections, I went to my barber in Paris to learn what the results really meant (I also needed a haircut). Macron had come in first, with 27.6 percent of the vote, Marine Le Pen second with 23.4 percent, and Jean-Luc Mélanchon third with 22 percent.