Paris A lot has happened since the last presidential election in France in 2017: yellow vest protests, the corona pandemic and now the war in Ukraine. At that time, voter turnout was at an all-time low, and many French people were frustrated by politics. In the end, the liberal Emmanuel Macron won the runoff against the far-right Marine Le Pen.
Once in office, the President is vested with a great deal of power and shapes the broad lines of the country’s politics. The term of office is five years.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine turned the French election campaign upside down. Russia’s war of aggression overshadows all other issues. One person in particular benefits from this: Macron.
In polls, Macron has increased since the beginning of the Ukraine war and can therefore count on just over 30 percent in the first ballot on April 10. In the runoff election two weeks later, he is likely to face Le Pen again, who was recently able to increase the gap to right-wing nationalist Éric Zemmour and conservative-bourgeois candidate Valérie Pécresse.
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A total of twelve candidates were nominated. The Handelsblatt presents them and their positions:
Emmanuel Macron
The incumbent president has a good chance of being re-elected.
(Photo: Reuters)
Macron has been the President of the Élysée Palace since 2017. He is the favorite of the elections, stands for his movement LREM (La République en Marche) and is considered to be social liberal. He attended the elite school for politicians École Nationale d’Administration, was first a Rothschild banker and then economics minister under the socialist François Hollande. The 44-year-old is a pro-European and since taking office has repeatedly called for Europe to become more economically independent.
In the event of an election victory, he promises more money for teachers, more doctors in rural areas and investments in renewable energies and nuclear power. He had already planned pension reforms in his first term, but the pandemic got in the way.
The topic is topical again, Macron is promising a retirement age of 65 years, so far it has been 62 years. The incumbent wants to further reform French unemployment insurance and introduce compulsory employment for those on welfare.
He is also committed to increasing defense spending. During his tenure, he had already increased the defense budget by 1.7 billion euros every year, and the current financial plan envisages a military budget of 50 billion euros in 2025.
Marine Le Pen
The far-right politician lost in the 2017 runoff to incumbent President Macron.
(Photo: dpa)
Le Pen, 53, is the youngest of three daughters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the Front National party. The law graduate took over the party in 2011 and is now running for the presidency for the third time.
While in the 2017 election campaign she was still campaigning for a Frexit – i.e. a French exit from the EU – she has been trying for years to lead the party to a more moderate course and to electoral successes. As a result, she renamed the party Rassemblement National: the National Front became the National Assembly. However, she still demands more sovereignty for France and less dependence on Brussels. Their goal is a Europe of nations.
>>Read here: How far-right Marine Le Pen is trying to break into the mainstream
Their economic policy is more social, they support the lower classes. Among other things, she wants to reduce VAT on energy and advocates a pension from the age of 60 for French people who started working early. Known for her closeness to Russia, Le Pen met Vladimir Putin in Moscow in 2017 and praised his “new vision” for the world. After the invasion of Ukraine, she then judged: “Vladimir Putin is wrong, he has crossed a red line.” This is unacceptable.
Jean-Luc Melenchon
Mélenchon is a candidate for the left-wing populist party La France insoumise (Indomitable France). He has risen in the polls for the first round of recent elections, finishing third behind Macron and Le Pen. He has 40 years of political experience and this is his third candidacy. In his political career he has been Minister for Vocational Education, MEP and Senator. He is currently a member of the French Parliament.
Mélenchon wants to raise the minimum wage and limit the price of petrol per liter. He wants to lower the retirement age to 60 to accommodate the lower classes. The 70-year-old also wants to create a new constitution for France, and he considers the concentration of power by the president to be dangerous.
Since the start of the Ukraine war, Mélenchon has been criticized for being too pro-Russia and pro-Putin in the past. He denies that, but defends his plan to withdraw from NATO.
Eric Zemmour
The journalist is even further to the right of Le Pen’s Rassemblement National.
(Photo: IMAGO/PanoramaC)
Zemmour was the surprise candidate of the campaign. The TV presenter and journalist attended the well-known political school Institut d’études politiques de Paris in Paris. The 63-year-old, who worked for the conservative “Le Figaro” for a long time, takes a course even further to the right than Le Pen’s and founded the far-right party Reconquête (Reconquest). He was repeatedly convicted of “inciting racial hatred”.
Zemmour upholds French identity against outside influences, is reactionary on social issues, liberal on economic issues. He agitates against refugees, wants to stop immigration, is Islamophobic and appeals to a patriotic and middle-class electorate. In order to stimulate the economy, he wants to lower corporate taxes. Zemmour proposes 64 as the retirement age.
The candidate has been repeatedly criticized for his admiration for Russia. In 2018 he said: “I dream of a French Putin.” After the Russian army’s attack on Ukraine, he backtracked and described it as “unjustified”. His previous comments on Russia caused him to slump in the pre-election polls.
Valerie Pécresse
The 54-year-old was Minister for Higher Education and Research under François Fillon.
(Photo: IMAGO/IP3press)
Pécresse has been the president of the powerful Île-de-France region around Paris since 2015 and was re-elected in 2021. She has held two ministerial posts, one for higher education and research and one for the budget. She was briefly the government spokeswoman under former President Nicolas Sarkozy. She comes from a middle-class background in the posh Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine and attended the elite École des hautes études commerciales de Paris for economics and the École national d’administration for politics.
Pécresse represents the conservative Les Républicains party, the party family of ex-presidents Jacques Chirac and Sarkozy. She describes herself as “two thirds Merkel, one third Thatcher”.
More on the election in France
Like Macron, Pécresse is pro-European and wants to strengthen the European community, including when it comes to defence. The 54-year-old is a representative of a liberal right, both economically and socially. She wants to lower corporate taxes and government spending and raise the retirement age to 65.
Anne Hidalgo
The politician has been mayor of Paris since 2014.
(Photo: dpa)
The politician from the socialist party Parti socialiste is running for the first time. Hidalgo is the daughter of Spanish immigrants and studied social law. She has been mayor of Paris since 2014 and was re-elected in 2020. Before that, the 62-year-old had been deputy mayor of Paris since 2001. Last year she was considered a favorite for the presidential election, but continued to plummet in the polls.
Hidalgo stands for a social program. She wants to raise teachers’ salaries, lower salaries for company bosses and expand unemployment insurance. In addition, she focuses on green issues, is committed to the climate and has increasingly transformed the Autostadt Paris into a bicycle city. She is considered pro-European.
Yannick Jadot
The environmental politician sits in the European Parliament.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Jadot is running for the green party Europe Écologie-Les Verts. The 54-year-old has been an MEP since 2009 and is running for the first time in the presidential elections. He studied economics at the elite Dauphine University in Paris and was then involved in humanitarian organizations for a long time. Increasingly interested in green issues, he became campaign director for Greenpeace.
Jadot wants to build more social housing and renovate homes to save energy. He also wants to strengthen the hospitals. He proposes subsidies for energy costs for low earners, and he wants to increase the minimum wage.
>>Read here: Nuclear power, yes please? What France’s nuclear energy offensive means for Germany
The Green politician is a declared pro-European. Jadot has spoken out against nuclear power but advocates a slow, pragmatic phase-out over about 20 years.
The other candidates:
The remaining five candidates have a rather bad chance of moving into the Élysée Palace. One of them is Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the founder of the Eurosceptic party Debout la France, which translates to “stand straight, France”.
There are also several left-wing presidential candidates: Philippe Poutou is the candidate of the anti-capitalist Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste party. Nathalie Arthaud is running for the Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Struggle) party. Jean Lassalle belongs to the anti-capitalism party Résistons (We resist), Fabien Roussel to the communist party Parti communiste français.
More on this: President in times of war: Macron wants to win re-election as leader in Europe