00:00The Paris mayoral runoff has been quite the saga.
00:03Of course, Paris went into round one of voting with seven candidates,
00:07two of whom were quickly eliminated because they didn't make the minimum 10% cutoff
00:11to stay in the race for the second round.
00:14However, the options have been further thinned down since.
00:19As you've seen on the right, you've seen the joining together,
00:22the joining forces of the macronist right-wing candidate
00:25and the traditional conservative right-wing candidate.
00:28They joined forces to block the victory of a left-wing candidate
00:33and separately, also on the right, the far-right candidate stepped out of the race.
00:38And, of course, that's raised all kinds of speculation
00:40about what kind of behind-the-scenes negotiations and collaboration
00:44there might have been between the right and the far-right.
00:47Of course, the traditional right insists there was none.
00:50Meanwhile, on the left-hand side of the political spectrum,
00:53there's been a huge amount of remonstration and criticism
00:56about the fact that the left have not joined forces in the way that the right have.
01:01The fact that the socialist candidate and the France unbowed candidate
01:06have kept their races, have maintained their campaigns
01:10and are, as such, competing against one another.
01:12So these are the three political forces.
01:14You've got the right, the socialists and the France unbowed.
01:17They're the three political forces competing for Paris.
01:20It could be a very close race, and it's certainly an extremely high-stakes one.
01:24And that's really come across in the rhetoric,
01:26which has been absolutely thick with remonstrations,
01:30with incriminations and really ad hominem attacks.
01:35What we don't know yet, of course,
01:37as the voter turnout increased slightly this week on last week,
01:42who will that favour here in the capital?
Comments