Arthur Noble 
L’élection présidentielle française est vraiment importante pour la France et aussi pour le monde. Maintenant, Emmanuel Macron gagnera probablement l’élection car le vote est divisé entre les autres candidates. Il y a deux tours pour les Français où ils décident le prochain Président du pays. Dans le premier tour, ils choisiront parmi tous les candidats à l’élection, mais dans le deuxième tour il y aura seulement deux candidats. L’élection commencera dimanche le dix avril et terminera le vingt-quatre avril. Les candidats principaux de l’élection pour la Droite sont Marine le Pen (Rassemblement National), Eric Zemmour (Reconquête) et Valérie Pécresse (Républicains), et pour la Gauche Anne Hidalgo (Socialiste). Tous les candidats font la campagne pour remplacer Macron.
The French Presidential Election
The French election is due to begin on Sunday the 10th of April with many candidates battling to overthrow Emanuel Macron’s government. The French presidential election consists of two rounds. The first round’s purpose is to establish which two candidates get the most votes and the second round is when the two candidates with the most votes then run against each other to see who wins overall. Macron is the favourite to win the election and retain his presidency, as a split right-wing vote and weak left-wing vote leaves the centrist Macron looking like he will obtain enough votes to stay in office, even if his COVID handling, Brexit battles and a weak French economy have turned many voters away from him. However, polls have been wrong in the past as Brexit and Trump’s rise to power have shown, so anything is possible. Here are the profiles of the most prolific candidates running for office this election.
Marine Le Pen – Rassemblement National
Seen as Macron’s main rival and projected to join him in the second round of the election. The far-right leader, aged 53, is sticking to her preferred themes, namely immigration and security. She wants to end the automatic citizenship for people born on French soil. She also plans to restrict access to family allowances to French people, with a five-year waiting period for foreigners. She also wants to abolish subsidies for intermittent energies, including wind and solar power. She has abandoned the idea of getting rid of the Euro and taking France out of the European Union after it proved unpopular when she ran for office in 2017.
Le Pen has sought to soften her party’s image since taking over from her father, who was sentenced multiple times for his antisemitic remarks. This has made the party more mainstream but she now risks being beaten on right-wing policies by the new contender, Eric Zemmour.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon – La France Insoumise
The left-wing leader, 70, came fourth in the last election, capturing nearly 20% of the first-round vote. Right now, polls credit him with around 10% of ballots. Up to now, his proposals have been solidly on social issues and the cost of living.
He has for instance announced that he plans to create a “social emergency law” that would allow for the price of basic necessities to be frozen, including fuel, gas, electricity and some food items.
Mélenchon is a controversial figure. He was given a three-month suspended prison term and a €8,000 fine in December 2019 for intimidating officials who were carrying out a search at his office in a probe over funding irregularities.
Anne Hidalgo – Socialist Party
She is currently the mayor of Paris, after winning a second term in 2020, as mayor of Paris she is infamous for letting the streets become filthy with rubbish and delapidated She has called for the education and health systems to be rebuilt and said that the question of work should once again become a central issue. Like Melenchon, she plans to boost wages.
She faces two major challenges. The first one is that she is seen as a local politician, tied to Paris. The second is that she is the candidate for a floundering party. The Socialists’ candidate in 2017 secured just 6.2% of the vote — a record low for the party. Polls currently credit her with between 4 and 7% of the vote.
Yannick Jadot – Green Party
Jadot, 54, is an MEP (member of European parliament) who already won the Green party presidential election vote in 2017. “Every euro of public money will be conditional on the protection of the environment. Not a single euro for Total until Total breaks with its logic of always looking for more oil and more gas in the ground,” he has said.
He also plans to restore a tax on wealth and to tax financial assets that invest in fossil fuels more. Polls give him between 6 and 9% of the vote.
Valérie Pécresse – Les Républicains
Valérie Pécresse was picked by the members of the right-wing party Les Républicains to be their first female candidate in France’s presidential election. She has pledged to review plans to close nuclear reactors, conceding however that nuclear will not suffice and that renewables need to be boosted. Other proposals include a carbon tax at Europe’s borders and “European preference in public procurement”.
She also called for wages to be brought up and for reforms of the unemployment and pension systems and promised to bring down public debt.
Eric Zemmour – Reconquête
Controversial columnist, television pundit and author Eric Zemmour has also decided to run for the French presidency. Zemmour, aged 63, is famed for his provocations on Islam, immigration and women which have seen him sued on many occasions. He argues France is in decline both geopolitically and economically which he blames on immigration, and the “Islamisation” and “feminisation” of society.
Zemmour’s bid for the Elysée could harm Marine Le Pen as the two have some similar positions. It could also lead the candidate from Les Republicains to veer to the right on certain themes including immigration and security in order to keep much of the right-wing French vote.
Conclusion
The French people will begin voting on the 10th of April. This election is certainly a consequential one for France: as the nation gains power in the European Union, Germany weakens and France leads Europe in a fight against Russian intimidation, this election will have colossal impacts for France and for the world.
