French voters punish presidential-poll favourites

A MID-TERM election is seldom a moment for voters to applaud their rulers. But the snub that they handed to President Emmanuel Macron’s party in the first round of voting in French regional elections on June 20th was quite something. Nobody expected La République en Marche (LREM) to come first in any of the country’s 13 regions. But in three of them, its candidates did not get even the 10% needed to go through to the second round on June 27th. Countrywide, his party got just 11%, putting it in fifth place. The day after the vote, as if to try to discount the damage, Mr Macron inaugurated a refurbished Parisian department store, welcomed Justin Bieber to his office, and hosted an electro concert at the Elysée palace.