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Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in France on 11 April 2027, with a second round on 25 April if required. The elections may be held earlier under exceptional circumstances, such as the resignation or death of the incumbent president Emmanuel Macron. Macron is not eligible to run in the 2027 elections, as he is limited to two consecutive terms in office.
The president of the French Republic is elected to a five-year term in a two-round election under Article 7 of the constitution: if no candidate secures an absolute majority (50%+1) (including blank and void ballots) of votes in the first round, a second round is held two weeks later between the two candidates who received the most votes. [1] Per the constitution, the first round of the presidential election must be held between 20 and 35 days before the transition of power at the end of the five-year term of the incumbent president. Because Emmanuel Macron took office on 14 May 2022, the transition of power is slated to take place on 13 May 2027, meaning that the first round of the presidential election will be held between 8 and 23 April 2027, with the second round held two weeks after the first. [2]
To be listed on the first-round ballot, candidates must secure 500 signatures (often referred to as parrainages) from national or local elected officials from at least 30 different departments or overseas collectivities, with no more than a tenth of these signatories from any single department. [3] According to the Article 6 of the French constitution, [4] the president cannot "exercise more than two consecutive periods in office". For that reason, Emmanuel Macron is no longer eligible to run in the election for a third consecutive term.
According to reporting by Le Monde , former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, and current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal are seen as allies of Macron who may run to succeed him in 2027. [10]
Laurent Timothée Marie Wauquiez is a French politician who has presided over the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes since 2016. He is a member of The Republicans (LR), which he led from 2017 to 2019 following the resignation of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is a French politician who was a member of the National Assembly for the 4th constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône from 2017 to 2022. He led the La France Insoumise group in the National Assembly from 2017 to 2021. Mélenchon has run three times in elections for president of France; in 2012 and 2017, and a strong third in the 2022 election, where he narrowly missed continuing on to the second round in France's two-round voting system.
Annick Girardin is a French politician of the Radical Party who served as Minister of the Sea in the government of Prime Minister Jean Castex (2020–2022), Minister of Overseas France in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe (2017–2020) and Junior Minister for Development and Francophonie in the government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls (2014–2018). In the National Assembly of France, she represented the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon from 2007 to 2014.
Bernard Guy Georges Cazeneuve is a French politician and lawyer who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 December 2016 to 15 May 2017. A member of the Socialist Party, he represented Manche’s 5th constituency in the National Assembly from 1997 to 2002 and again from 2007 to 2012. On 4 May 2022, following the Socialist Party's electoral coalition agreement with the leftist La France Insoumise, he left the Socialist Party because he felt La France Insoumise did not match the values and morals of the Socialist Party.
Olivier Dussopt is a French politician who served as minister of labour, employment and integration in the government of prime minister Élisabeth Borne from 2022 to 2024. He previously served as minister of public action and accounts in the governments of successive prime ministers Édouard Philippe and Jean Castex from 2019 to 2022. Dussopt was a member of the National Assembly for Ardèche from 2007 to 2017.
Presidential elections were held in France on 23 April and 7 May 2017. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! (EM) and Marine Le Pen of the National Front (FN), which Macron won with a difference of more than 30% of the vote. The presidential election was followed by a legislative election to elect members of the National Assembly on 11 and 18 June. Incumbent president François Hollande of the Socialist Party (PS) was eligible to run for a second term, but declared on 1 December 2016 that he would not seek reelection in light of low approval ratings, making him the first incumbent head of state of the Fifth Republic not to seek reelection.
The Republicans is a liberal-conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed on 30 May 2015 as the re-incorporation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been established in 2002 under the leadership of then President of France Jacques Chirac.
Legislative elections were held in France on 11 and 18 June 2017 to elect the 577 members of the 15th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. They followed the two-round presidential election won by Emmanuel Macron. The centrist party he founded in 2016, La République En Marche! (LREM), led an alliance with the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem); together, the two parties won 350 of the 577 seats—a substantial majority—in the National Assembly, including an outright majority of 308 seats for LREM. The Socialist Party (PS) was reduced to 30 seats and the Republicans (LR) reduced to 112 seats, and both parties' allies also suffered from a marked drop in support; these were the lowest-ever scores for the centre-left and centre-right in the legislative elections. The movement founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, la France Insoumise (FI), secured 17 seats, enough for a group in the National Assembly. Among other major parties, the French Communist Party (PCF) secured ten and the National Front (FN) obtained eight seats. Both rounds of the legislative election were marked by record low turnout.
The French Socialist Party held a two-round presidential primary to select a candidate for the 2017 presidential election on 22 and 29 January 2017. It was the second open primary held by the center-left coalition, after the primary in 2011 in which François Hollande defeated Martine Aubry to become the Socialist nominee. Hollande went on to defeat incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential election. However, because of his low approval rating, he announced that he would not seek re-election, becoming the first president of the Fifth Republic to decide not to run for a second term. The primary was contested by seven candidates, four from the Socialist Party and three representing other parties part of the left-wing electoral alliance.
La France Insoumise is a left-wing populist political party in France, launched in 2016 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, then a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and former co-president of the Left Party (PG). It aims to implement the eco-socialist and democratic socialist programme L'Avenir en commun.
Christophe Castaner is a French politician who served as Minister of the Interior from 16 October 2018 to 6 July 2020 under President Emmanuel Macron. He had been elected in 2017 for a three-year term as chairman of the La République En Marche! party with Macron's support. Castaner was Government Spokesperson under Prime Minister Édouard Philippe in 2017 and Secretary of State for Relations with Parliament from 2017 to 2018. He was also Macron's 2017 presidential campaign spokesman.
Presidential elections were held in France on 10 and 24 April 2022. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held, in which Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen and was re-elected as President of France. Macron, from La République En Marche! (LREM), had defeated Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, once already in the 2017 French presidential election, for the term which expired on 13 May 2022. Macron became the first president of France to win a re-election bid since Jacques Chirac won in 2002.
Gérald Moussa Darmanin is a French politician who has been serving as Minister of the Interior in the governments of Prime Ministers Jean Castex, Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal since 2020.
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The New Ecological and Social People's Union is a left-wing electoral alliance of political parties in France. Formed on May Day 2022, the alliance includes La France Insoumise (LFI), the Socialist Party (PS), the French Communist Party (PCF), Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV), Ensemble! (E!), and Génération.s (G.s), and their respective smaller partners. It was the first wide left-wing political alliance since the Plural Left in the 1997 French legislative election. Over 70 dissident candidates who refused the accord still ran.
Marguerite Cazeneuve is a French specialist in social affairs, health and pensions. She is an adviser of President Emmanuel Macron.
The March for the Republic and Against Antisemitism was a protest that took place in many cities, but predominantly Paris, in France on 12 November 2023 in response to the rise in antisemitism since the beginning of the 2023 Israel-Hamas War.
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