France 2017

By: Gaël Malo L’Hermine, BA — MA student, Political science; specialist of French and Colombian politics

The French presidential election on April 23 and May 7, 2017 was historic in many regards. It broke every rule in the old playbook, was filled with surprise defeats and victories, threw out the ‘old parties’ and will probably dramatically transform French politics for the years to come.

This is a multi-section analysis of the 2017 French presidential and legislative elections, covering more than you ever wanted to know on the basic dynamics of French politics and elections, the story of why the 2017 election became such a dramatic turning-point, how all the parties and their composite alliances prepared for the election, how different candidates were chosen, what these candidates proposed to voters, what their campaigns were likely, the results, the stories behind the results (demographic, social, geographic etc.) and the implications for the future.

This analysis will be written over the coming months and posted at various time intervals. In the meantime, you can look at some fragmentary pre-analysis through maps and graphs on the World Elections Twitter.

Contents

The French presidency and presidential elections

• The French presidency
• Presidential elections

Prelude (2007-2012)

• Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise and fall (2007-2012)
• François Hollande’s rise (2011-2012)

François Hollande’s presidency (2012-2017)

Parties, Candidates, Issues and Campaigns

1. The right: Les Républicains (LR) and Union des démocrates et indépendants (UDI) – François Fillon

• 2016 primary candidates and results
• François Fillon’s platform
• The Fillon scandal – Penelopegate

2. The centre-left: Parti socialiste (PS) and its allies, Europe Écologie Les Verts (EELV) – Benoît Hamon

• Sidetrack: the implosion of EELV
• 2017 primary candidates and results
• Benoît Hamon’s platform

3. The radical left: Jean-Luc Mélenchon, La Franse insoumise and the Parti communiste français (PCF)

• Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the Left Front
• La France insoumise 
• Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s platform

4. The far-right: Marine Le Pen and the Front national (FN)

• The story of the French far-right and the FN
• Marine Le Pen
• Marine Le Pen’s platform

5. The centre: Emmanuel Macron and En marche !

• The centre during the Fifth Republic
• Emmanuel Macron and En marche !
• Emmanuel Macron’s platform

6. The other candidates

7. Campaign events and polling

April 23, 2017: First round results

Second round campaign

May 7, 2017: Second round results

This is Emmanuel Macron’s world

2017 French legislative elections

Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed on these pages are the personal opinion of the author. The author voted in the presidential election, for Emmanuel Macron in the second round and a spoiled vote in the first round.