2022 French presidential election
The first round of the 2022 French presidential election will be held between 8 and 23 April 2022, with the second round held two weeks after the first. Should no candidate win a majority of the vote in the first round, a runoff will be held between the top two candidates two weeks later. The incumbent president is Emmanuel Macron of La République En Marche!, who won the 2017 presidential election and whose term lasts until 13 May 2022.
Background
Under Article 7 of the Constitution of France, the President of the Republic is elected to a five-year term in a two-round election. If no candidate secures an absolute majority of votes in the first round, a second round is held two weeks later between the two candidates who received the most votes. According to the Constitution of France, 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 officeholder. As Emmanuel Macron took office on 14 May 2017, the transition of power is expected to take place on 13 May 2022. Correspondingly, the first round of the presidential election will be held between 8 and 23 April 2022, with the second round held two weeks after the first.To be listed on the first-round ballot, candidates need to secure 500 signatures 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.
Campaign
, the president of the National Rally, announced on 16 January 2020 that she was running in the election. She previously ran in the 2012 presidential election and the 2017 presidential election as the candidate for the same party, then called the National Front. She came third in 2012 with 17.9% of the vote in the first round and second in 2017 with 21.3% of the vote in the first round and 33.9% of the vote in the second round. Le Pen was elected to the National Assembly in the 2017 legislative election.Jean Lassalle, who ran in the 2017 presidential election under the Résistons! banner, coming in seventh place with 1.2% of the vote, announced that he would run again if he was healthy enough and could raise funds. In 2020, Joachim Son-Forget, a radiologist who was elected to the National Assembly for La République En Marche! in 2017, formed a new political party called Valeur absolue and announced his intention to enter the race for the presidency. He had resigned from the LREM group after posting tweets in 2018 that were deemed sexist; he joined the UDI and Independents group in 2019 before resigning his membership later that year.
Candidates
Declared
Potential
Lutte Ouvrière
- Nathalie Arthaud, spokeswoman of Lutte Ouvrière, candidate in the 2012 and 2017 presidential elections
New Anticapitalist Party
- Olivier Besancenot, candidate of the New Anticapitalist Party in the 2002 and 2007 presidential elections
La France Insoumise
- Jean-Luc Mélenchon, member of the National Assembly for Bouches-du-Rhône's 4th constituency since 2017 and candidate in the 2012 and 2017 presidential elections
- François Ruffin, member of the National Assembly for Somme's 1st constituency since 2017, journalist and documentary filmmaker
French Communist Party
- Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the French Communist Party since 2018
Génération.s
- Benoît Hamon, regional councillor of Île-de-France since 2015, Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research in 2014 and candidate in the 2017 presidential election with the Socialist Party
Socialist Party
- Bernard Cazeneuve, Prime Minister of France from 2016 to 2017 and Minister of the Interior from 2014 to 2016
- Stéphane Le Foll, Mayor of Le Mans since 2018, member of the National Assembly for Sarthe's 4th constituency from 2017 to 2018 and 2012, Minister of Agriculture, Agrifood and Forestry from 2012 to 2017 and Government Spokesman from 2014 to 2017
- Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research from 2014 to 2017
Europe Écologie Les Verts
- Yannick Jadot, Member of the European Parliament since 2009
- Julien Bayou, EELV National Secretary since 2019
- Éric Piolle, mayor of Grenoble since 2014
La République En Marche!
- Emmanuel Macron, incumbent President of the French Republic since 2017, eligible for a second term
Union of Democrats and Independents
- Jean-Christophe Lagarde, member of the National Assembly for Seine-Saint-Denis's 5th constituency since 2002
Libres
- Valérie Pécresse, president of the regional council of Île-de-France since 2015
The Republicans
- François Baroin, Mayor of Troyes since 1995, Senator for Aube from 2014 to 2017 and member of the National Assembly for Aube's 3rd constituency from 2012 to 2014, 2007 to 2010, 1997 to 2005 and 1993 to 1995
- Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, member of the National Assembly for Essonne's 4th constituency from 2002 to 2007 and 2012 to 2017
- Laurent Wauquiez, president of the regional council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes since 2016 and president of The Republicans from 2017 to 2019
- Bruno Retailleau, president of The Republicans group since 2014 and former president of President of the Regional Council of Pays de la Loire from 2015 to 2017
Debout la France
- Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, president of Debout la France, member of the National Assembly for Essonne's 8th constituency and candidate in the 2012 and 2017 presidential elections
Popular Republican Union
- François Asselineau, president of the Popular Republican Union since 2007 and candidate in the 2017 presidential election
Others
- Xavier Bertrand, president of the regional council of Hauts-de-France since 2016
- Nicolas Hulot, Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition from 2017 to 2018 and candidate in the 2011 ecologist primary
- Ségolène Royal, Minister of Ecology from 2014 to 2017 and candidate in the 2007 presidential election with the Socialist Party that she left in 2017
- Éric Zemmour, essayist and journalist
Declined
- Jacques Cheminade, candidate of Solidarity and Progress in the 1995, 2012, and 2017 presidential elections
- François Fillon, Prime Minister from 2007 to 2012 and candidate of The Republicans in the 2017 presidential election
- Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris since 2014
- Gérard Larcher, president of the Senate
- Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy and Finance since 2017 and candidate in the 2016 primary of the right and centre
- Marion Maréchal, member of the National Assembly for Vaucluse's 3rd constituency from 2012 to 2017 and regional councillor of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur from 2015 to 2017
- Philippe Poutou, candidate of the New Anticapitalist Party in the 2012 and 2017 presidential elections
- Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic from 2007 to 2012 and candidate in the 2016 primary of the right and centre
- François Hollande, President of the French Republic from 2012 to 2017
Opinion polls