MINDS WITHOUT BORDERS

France Swings Right

What happened when half of France sat out the election — and the lesson America should learn

Let me begin with a confession. We didn’t vote in yesterday’s European Parliamentary elections. We’re on vacation in the center of France with family and friends, and there’s no such thing as absentee ballots in France.

It didn’t seem like a big deal.

It’s not a “winner takes all” contest. Any party that gets more than 5 percent of the vote gets to send representatives to the European Parliament. Disgruntled electors often use this race to signal their discontent with the sitting President’s performance.

The outcome rarely had a significant impact on what happened locally in France until yesterday.

We watched the results at 8 p.m. last night. No early returns are allowed before the polls close, so the build-up to the result was limited to news anchors chatting and tossing hypothetical questions to the assembled spokespeople from the 10 parties that had run candidates for deputy.

You heard that right. There were lists from 10 parties. In addition to that, two of the major parties have renamed themselves since the last election, and it’s complicated for this American to…