As France enters the final stages of the presidential elections, public airwaves will have space for little else. To help you follow the race—and participate in the heated debates—we’ve prepared a succinct cheat sheet.
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Until the first round of the presidential elections, which takes place on April 21 and 22, the twelve candidates (those who successfully gathered the required 500 signatures from elected officials by March 19) will be granted by law equal time on television and radio. It will be impossible to follow anything else (though to even out funding inequalities, TV ads and large mural posters are banned).
The race is captivating: a woman could be elected President, a “third man” wants to break the two-party system, voters are undecided at unheard-of levels, and the shadow of the extreme-right is lurking close-by. For foreigners lucky enough to be in Paris this month, this is a unique opportunity to observe the French up-close the French up-close. The runoff is May 6.
Nicolas Sarkozy, 52. Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP)
Since he entered politics over 30 years ago, Sarkozy has been driven by one ambition: to be President. His main adviser says he entered the campaign “four years ago already.” Determined and hyperactive, he spent the last five years in the interior and finance ministries and seized the leadership of his party against President Chirac’s will. As France’s “#1 cop,” he deliveres tough stances on immigration and crime, promising to clean the poor suburbs of “scum” with a power hose. An exception in the political spectrum, Sarkozy calls himself an economic liberal and claims he wants to put France back to work. He is known as “a little Napoléon” and dubbed “ a neo-conservative with a French passport” by the left. Polls show he fascinates the majority of voters with his will “to change things,” although 50% are also “scared” by his aggressive hands-on approach.
Ségolène Royal, 53. Parti Socialiste (PS)
“What if it were she…” With this headline beside her smiling face, the cover of the weekly Le Nouvel Observateur brought Royal to the foreground in December 2005. A year later, the French called her by her first name, socialist constituents voted her their candidate, and she led the race in every poll. But then, Royal’s campaign lost momentum. Her vows to bring about “participative democracy” sounded empty and she made a series of gaffes (praising the speed of the Chinese justice system for instance). She also alienated some on the left by claiming her independence from party leaders, praising Tony Blair, or proposing military camps for young offenders. The daughter of an army colonel, she claimed that every family should have a French flag at-the-ready for the national holidays. Royal became a member of the Socialist Party in 1978 and entered politics as an adviser under President Mitterrand. She was Minister of the Environment in 1992-93 and Deputy Minister of Education in 1997, and then of Family Matters. Since 2004, she has been the Premier of Poitou-Charentes, a rural region in the west.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, 78. Front National (FN)
“What if it were he?” In January, the magazine of the extreme right, National Hebdo, parodied the Nouvel Obs cover, printing a flattering picture of the doyen of presidential elections, Jean-Marie Le Pen. The bombastic champion of the far-right for the past 35 years, Le Pen stunned the world and traumatized many French by coming in second in the 2002 elections with 16.8% of the first-round vote, ahead of the Socialist candidate. He played on the rising fear of crime and immigration, his favorite themes. Known for his unsavory remarks about World War II (he was convinced in 1987 under a law that outlaws denial of the Nazi gas chambers), Le Pen flaunts protectionist, nationalist, and, as some characterize, racist sentiments.
Jean-François Bayrou, 55. Union pour la démocatie française (UDF)
“What if it were I!” In mid-March, Le Nouvel Observateur self-consciously mocked its now famous cover, this time with a portrait of Bayou. The “third man” of this campaign, Bayrou polled above 20% in March, up from 6% in January. President of the traditionally center-right party, UDF, since 1998, he vows to transcend the right/left divide and to forge a “government of national unity” with moderate members of both parties. A true country boy (his father was a farmer in the Pyrenees region), he declared proudly that Sarkozy was a member of the jet set, while he himself belonged to the “tractor set.” Minister of Education between between 1993 and 1997, Bayrou is profoundly pro-European. In 2002, he garnered only 6.8% of the vote.
Marie-George Buffet, 57. Parti communiste (PCF)
In 2001, Buffet became the first woman to head the French Communist Party. She recently quit this position for the duration of the campaign, hoping to create a unified, leftist, anti-free- market economy movement, which didn’t work out—hence the number of extreme-left candidates.
Olivier Besancenot, 32. Ligue communiste révolutionaire (LCR)
A postman in a posh Neuilly neighborhood, Besancenot has been a leader of the Communist Revolutionary League since 1999. He scored 4.2% in the 2002 elections and was one of the leaders of the “No” vote during the E.U. constitutional referendum in 2005.
José Bové, 53. Altermondialiste
Bové became famous in France and abroad as a leader of the anti-globalization movement when he dismantled a MacDonald’s restaurant in 1999 to protest the proliferation of junk food. In February, he was sentenced to 7 months in prison for having destroyed genetically modified cornfields.
Arlette Laguiller, 66. Lutte ouvrière (LO)
A supporter of class struggle, Laguiller has run for president six times, always with the same apparent sincerity and Leninist-Trotskyist convictions, gaining her some respect. She scored 5.3% in 1995 and 5.7% in 2002.
Frédéric Nihous, 39. Chasse, pêche, nature et tradition (CPNT)
Virtually unknown, Nihous’s program resides in the bucolic name of his party: Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Tradition. His earthy predecessor managed to score 4.2% in 2002.
Gérard Schivardi, 56. Parti des Travailleurs (PT)
Also unknown, but supported by the Worker’s Party, Schivardi, a mason who is mayor of a village in the South, wants to regain national independence from the European Union.
Philippe de Villiers, 58. Mouvement pour la France (MPF)
Villiers incarnates the traditional racist, anti-European extreme-right with a twist of royalism: a vice-count of the Vendée region, his complete name is Philippe Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintighon. His main obsession is what he calls the “islamization of France.”
Dominique Voynet, 48. Verts
Co-founder of the Green party in 1984, Voynet became its chief in 1993. The party has sufferered from internal divisions ever since, and in the 1995 elections, she scored only 3.3%. She joined the Socialist government in 1997 as Minister of the Environment and is now a senator.
Read Thomas Legrand's Campaign Analysis
