00:00Well despite the heavy rain I can tell you that voters are turning up in quite large numbers
00:05at noon. The levels of participation are around 22% of voters coming to polling stations like
00:13the one just behind me. It's significantly more than last week in the first round at the same time
00:19around three points more. So who will benefit from this increased participation? Of course it's only
00:26noon here in Marseille France's second largest city and voters can go to the polling stations until
00:338 p.m. You've got three candidates remaining. You've got the incumbent mayor Benoit Payan
00:40socialist candidate. Then you've got Franck Elisiot for the French far-right party the national rally
00:48and then you've got the right-wing candidate the conservative candidate Martine Vassal who obtained
00:55more than 10% of the votes in the first round and who decided to remain in the race. So
01:02you've got
01:02those three candidates. Why are we today in Marseille? Because it's the second largest city in France
01:08because it's a multicultural city with 555,000 registered voters. A multicultural city that could
01:17go to the French far-right possibly because Franck Elisiot finished in the first round
01:24in a closely behind Benoit Payan the socialist. So the French far-right at the gates of power here
01:33in Marseille and that's why it's so closely watched in the country. It would be a historic victory for
01:40the French far-right. But of course voters will have their say until 8 p.m. today they can go
01:47to
01:47the polling stations and we should get the final results around 9 or 10 depending on how close the
01:53race is. Now Clovis in the meantime when you look at southern France are you are there any other key
01:58races that are catching your eye or any other trends you're looking for?
02:06Well the five biggest cities here in France are Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse and Nice in fifth
02:14position and that's where Eric Ciotti the former boss of the Conservatives who decided to make an
02:20alliance with the French far-right the national rally. Well Eric Ciotti has a strong chance of winning
02:25in Nice at least when you look at the results in the French in the first round of the election.
02:31He's facing his former friend turned arch-rival, enemy one could say, Christian Estrosi for the
02:40Conservatives, the centre-right party. Christian Estrosi who's the incumbent mayor he's been in
02:45power for years and he's facing Eric Ciotti. Interesting situation because here again you've got three
02:52candidates with a left-wing candidate who got more than 10 percent of the votes in the first round
02:58and who decided to remain in the race. I was talking to you about Nice. Further west, southwest of course,
03:04you've got Toulouse where the France-en-Boward candidate, the French far-left party, made an alliance
03:11merged with the socialist candidate and they're making a left-wing bloc against the centre-right
03:18conservative incumbent mayor that's in Toulouse. And maybe one word about Lyon. Lyon also a close race
03:26with the incumbent mayor Doucet for the Green Party. He's heading a left-wing bloc while he's facing
03:34a rather unusual candidate. It's Jean-Michel Aulas, centre-right. Jean-Michel Aulas, the name is making
03:43these young Marseillais laugh a bit. Well, Jean-Michel Aulas is the former president of Olympique Lyonnais,
03:49a very famous French football club and he is running so against the incumbent mayor Doucet for
03:56the left-wing bloc and we'll be bringing you all of the results during the day and tonight of course.
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