‘La peste ou le choléra’: the plague or cholera. This expression perfectly captures the dilemma of French Catholics at the ballot box this Sunday. In the second round of the presidential election, they must choose between Emmanuel Macron, the candidate of the centre-left party En Marche!, and Marine Le Pen, the right-wing populist candidate.
In the first round, the majority of Catholics did not vote for either Macron or Le Pen. According to the pollster Ifop, 46 per cent of practising Catholics supported François Fillon. In spite of the expenses scandal that engulfed him, the former prime minister was backed by many Catholic activists, mostly on account of his social conservatism. Furthermore, 12 per cent of churchgoers voted for the far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose appeal to social justice attracted Christians, despite his plan to legalise euthanasia.
