As could be predicted by the narrow margin in the first round, the second round saw a very close call between 'Macronist' Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade (Ensemble) and Cécilia Gondard (Nouveau Front Populaire) for the Benelux constituency. Ultimately, Anglade won, albeit by a narrow margin.
The duel between the two main contenders, Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade (Ensemble) and Cécilia Gondard (Nouveau Front Populaire), reached a boiling point on Sunday July 7 as they battled for the fourth constituency for French residents overseas, which includes Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.
In the end, it was the presidential majority candidate, Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, who won the second round of the early legislative elections in the Benelux countries by a narrow margin. He will represent the French people living in Luxembourg in the National Assembly for the third time in a row.
It was a tight call as Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade won the election with 50.24%, compared to Cécilia Gondard 49.76%. In absolute terms, the difference is minimal. The 'Macronist' candidate beat his rival by just 349 votes. He benefited from the transfer of votes and was ultimately re-elected with 36,476 votes (out of 76,365), while Cécilia Gondard came close with 36,127 votes.
The incumbent MP faced a difficult battle. His Leftist rival who was also his opponent in June 2022, had come out on top in the first round on Sunday 30 June 2024, taking 37.45% of the vote to Anglade's 35.46%. After her impressive results, the NFP candidate thanked her voters on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday evening:
As was already made clear in the first round, French people living in Luxembourg prefer Emmanuel Macron's candidate. Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade obtained 68.68% of the votes (9,447 votes). Cécilia Gondard scored half as much, with just 31.32% or 4,308 votes in the second round. Thus the votes Anglade won in Luxembourg were clearly enough to tip the balance in his favour for the second round.
Voter turnout higher than usual
As in the neighbouring Moselle (58.42% at 5pm) and across France (59.71% at 5pm), voter turnout in Luxembourg was significantly higher for the second round for these early legislative elections with a turnout of 49.65%. Of the 29,723 registered voters, 14,757 people voted. Most voters cast their ballot online (10,546) and less than a third of voters (4,211) went to the polling station at Luxexpo.
In the first round, one in two French citizens voted (50.8%), which is almost twice the number of registered voters two years ago. In June 2022, only 28.1% of registered voters had cast their ballot.
