Election Preview: France 2012

Presidential elections will be held in France on April 22 and May 6, 2012. The President of France, who holds significant powers granted that he controls a parliamentary majority, is elected for a five-year term, renewable once. France uses a traditional runoff system, where a candidate must win 50%+1 of the votes in the first round to be elected outright, or else the top two candidates in the first round proceed to a runoff held two weeks later. France has held eight direct presidential elections since 1965, and in none of these eight contests has a candidate ever won an absolute majority of the votes cast in the first round.

In the runup to this election, World Elections opens to ground to any questions by interested readers on the topic of French politics and the 2012 elections. All types of questions, ranging from general questions about the candidates and their parties to more specific questions about the impact of this election, the polls, runoff prospects, the trends, the background, the political history of France, voting patterns and voter behaviour or electoral geography are acceptable. Please post your questions in the comments section below, tweet them to me (@welections) or email them to me. In due time – that is, before April 21 – all these questions will be answered in a thorough and accessible manner in this post.

In the meantime, you can read some background to this election by reading these posts on recent elections in France since 2009 or about French political history in general:

2011 Presidential primaries

• PS-PRG open primary second round results and analysis
• PS-PRG open primary first round results and analysis
• PS-PRG open primary election preview/who’s who
• PCF internal primary and EELV semi-open primary

2011 Senatorial elections

• Results and analysis

2011 cantonal elections

• Second round results and analysis
• First round results and analysis

2010 Regional elections

• Second round results and analysis
• First round results and analysis
• The FN vote: a first round analysis at the cantonal level
• Pre-electoral commentary

2009 European elections

• Results and analysis

Political analysis and relevant history

• Glossary of French political terms(Mapping French Elections blog)
• 1962-2012: 50 years after the Évian accords (Mapping French Elections blog)
• 1995-2007: The changing face of the French left (Mapping French Elections blog)
• 2007: Jean-Marie Le Pen’s collapse (Mapping French Elections blog)
• 1984: Emergence of the FN in the European elections (Mapping French Elections blog)
• 1956: the Poujadist movement (Mapping French Elections blog)
• 1951: the Gaullist movement (Mapping French Elections blog)
• 1946: the MRP and PCF dominant (Mapping French Elections blog)
• 1936: Victory of the Popular Front
• Political Profile of the Vendée (Mapping French Elections blog)
• Political Profile of Savoie (Mapping French Elections blog)

Post all your questions below!