With all eyes on France for the outcome of a very significant election, Commonspace has put together a handy guide to the election and the candidates involved
THE 2017 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION is in full swing. Tuesday night saw a four-hour debate take place, and for the first time in a French election all 11 candidates were given a platform. While the debate did include some delightful interventions from minor candidates like factory worker and trade unionist Philippe Poutou, only five of those present are considered viable candidates in the running. They are François Fillon, Marine Le Pen, Emmanuel Macron, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and Benoît Hamon.
Presidential elections in France are held using a two-round runoff voting system. Voters cast one vote for their preferred candidate in the first round. If any candidate wins an absolute majority in the first round, they’ve won the election. If, however, as is almost always the case, no candidate achieves an absolute majority, voters return to the polls two weeks later to vote again, this time between the two candidates who received the highest vote share in the first round.
This particular election is garnering more international focus, and for a few reasons. Primarily, the surge in popularity of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is worrying those concerned with a rising wave of extreme anti-immigrant and nationalist sentiment across the continent, and there are fears a Le Pen victory would be strong encouragement to other anti-EU and anti-immigrant far-right movements in Europe. On the other hand, the unexpected momentum behind far left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon has been welcomed by leftist campaigners across the continent.
Commonspace has compiled a run-down of the five main candidates.
Emmanuel Macron
Who is he?
Emmanuel Macron, founder and leader of the eponymous movement En Marche! (Forward/On The Move), is the youngest of the candidates at 39. The former investment banker was secretary general and then minister of economy, industry, and digital affairs for the Socialist Party (i.e. the French version of Labour, complete with competing left- and right-wing factions) governments under François Hollande and Manuel Valls. He was a member of the centre-right faction of the Socialist Party, which he left in 2016 to form his own movement and run as an independent. He insists that he is neither left nor right wing, and promises to unite the French people with democratic reforms.
What are his policies?
Macron has kept his policy positions somewhat vague while capitalising on his socially progressive values and promising to bring morals back to French politics. He claims to be in favour of policies from all parts of the political spectrum. He is an economic liberal: strongly in favour of the free market and reducing the deficit, which would involve reducing government spending and promoting business growth while cutting taxes and loosening up labour laws and worker’s rights. He is also one of the most pro-EU of the five candidates, and supports continued integration and the expansion of the EU, although he was critical of its treatment of Greece. He hasn’t made much in the way of the concrete policies, preferring larger statements about reform and democracy.
What are his chances?
Initially an outsider, Macron has swept to the head of the race, currently polling highest of all the candidates at 25 per cent, and he is likely to win the election in part because of votes for candidates who don’t pass the first round moving to him as the only way to make sure Le Pen doesn’t win.
What’s the big picture?
A Macron win would probably mean mostly business as usual in France. He makes a big deal about his socially progressive values, and might have some effect in counteracting Islamophobic tendencies in France, but he is unlikely to do much to improve poverty or tackle the banks and big business. He would move to strengthen the EU, which would be greeted positively in Brussels, especially in the wake of a destabilising Brexit.
Marine Le Pen
Who is she?
The far-right nationalist, Le Pen is the candidate for Front National (National Front), an anti-immigrant, anti-EU, and “tough on crime” party that has been the main driving force of French nationalism in the last few decades. She has been busy at softening the image of the party, disassociating it from its neofascist roots, and expelling her own father, the party’s first leader, for his holocaust-denial comments. Like Fillon, she is under investigation for a potential misuse of parliamentary funds, although it has not harmed her candidacy to the extent it did to Fillon. She was summoned by police over fraud allegations, but used her immunity as an EU parliamentary lawmaker to avoid the summons.
What are her policies?
Policy-wise, Le Pen has ridden the wave of anti-immigrant sentiment, proposing a moratorium on legal immigration, the deportation of all illegal immigrants, increasing the numbers of French police officers, and “French only” rules for receiving social welfare. She would seek to withdraw France from the Eurozone and go back to using the Franc as currency, hold a referendum on EU membership, and withdraw from Nato. She has courted working class support by promising increased welfare payments, cuts in income tax, and lowering the retirement age. The rest of her campaigning consists of capitalising on the anti-muslim sentiment in the wake of terror attacks in France, and she would likely seek to implement legislation banning certain elements of Islam, like the burqa, in France.
What are her chances?
She is currently polling at 24 per cent, one point below Macron, but is unlikely to win against Macron if he picks up voters from the left after the first round.
What’s the big picture?
Marine Le Pen is the new face of far right nationalism and anti-Islam in France. Her party’s origins lie in militant extreme rightwing groups, sometimes described as fascist. She has since brought the party into mainstream acceptability, and her victory would empower the far right across Europe. She is also heavily Eurosceptic, and would try to withdraw France from the EU, which would be a majorly destabilising event.
François Fillon
Who is he?
The conservative candidate, François Fillon was prime minister of France under President Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012. He won the nomination for his party les Républicains (The Republicans) after Sarkozy and rival candidate Alain Juppé conceded and agreed to support him.
What are his policies?
Fillon’s campaign policies are mostly pro-business and anti-welfare: he would reduce the public sector, cut social spending like unemployment benefits, abolish the wealth tax, reduce healthcare funding, and increase the age of retirement. His policy on unemployment would be to provide occupational training to jobseekers and then force them to accept offers they receive upon completion.
What are his chances?
He was the frontrunner in the election until the Penelopegate scandal broke, when he was accused of embezzling nearly €1m by paying his wife Penelope for a government job she had never actually done any work for. He originally promised to step down should criminal investigations against him be opened, but refused to do so once it happened and is now threatening to sue journalists who report on the scandal. This has seen him sink in the polls, and has provided ample ammunition to his opponents. He currently sits at 18 per cent, trailing both Le Pen and Macron, and is just one single point ahead of Mélenchon.
What’s the big picture?
He is EU-friendly, and would presumably have been considered the best candidate by Angela Merkel, were it not for the scandals pursuing his campaign. He is the most business friendly of all the candidates and would have done the most to promote corporate interests.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Who is he?
Mélenchon is the furthest on the left of the five main candidates. He is a former member of the Socialist Party, and quit the party after its 2008 congress, accusing the leadership of not being sufficiently anti-capitalist. He is running as a candidate for the movement France Insoumise (Unsubmissive France), which he founded in 2016.
What are his policies?
Mélenchon is a traditional French Marxist. He advocates for increased welfare programs, and for expanding and strengthening workers’ rights. His policies include a 100 per cent income tax on all earnings over €360,000 a year, relaxing immigration laws, and providing full state reimbursement for healthcare expenses. While he does not advocate leaving the EU, Mélenchon is somewhat eurosceptic, and is critical of what he sees as the neoliberal bias and pro-business tendencies of the EU. He would seek to ignore EU directives that harmed worker’s rights, and his flagship stance is “disobeying” the EU treaty on stability, coordination, and governance (also known as the Fiscal Compact), which sets deficit limits for EU countries and imposes austerity policies that force countries to cut spending and lower taxes. He would most likely push for a renegotiation of the treaty, along with any other EU treaty that contradicts his electoral promises. During the first debate he called for a conference to reassess the geopolitical tensions between Eastern European countries.
What are his chances?
A fringe candidate to begin with, Mélenchon went from trailing heavily behind the other leftist candidate Hamon to overpassing him and establishing himself as the main voice of French leftism. He is considered to have performed best at the two presidential debates, and has a small chance of making it to the second round unless the leftist vote is split between him and Hamon. He is currently polling at 17 per cent.
What’s the big picture?
Despite his euroscepticism, his election would be unlikely to move France towards leaving the EU, but would probably cause some unrest in Brussels. His opposition to the European Fiscal Compact is a welcome approach to the EU among most European leftists, and he may very well have a positive influence in reforming the EU away from the attitudes and legislation that caused such distress in countries like Greece.
Benoît Hamon
Who is he?
Hamon is the Socialist Party candidate. Unlike Macron, he is part of the left and green wing of the party and was able to beat the centrist faction of the party to the nomination. He was education secretary under Hollande and resigned his post in protest of Hollande’s abandonment of socialist policies for pro-business policies.
What are his policies?
He supports the 35-hour work week, a constitutional amendment to protect shared natural resources like water and air, generating 50 per cent of France’s energy with renewables by 2025, and legalising marijuana. His rhetoric is quite left wing, and he likes to criticise the neoliberal idea of infinite growth, croissance, which he likens to a “quasi-religious cult”. He is not anti-EU, but is critical of many ways in which the EU is run and would push for structural reform.
What are his chances?
Initially, he was the frontrunner leftist candidate, and had called for Mélenchon to drop out so as not to split the leftist vote, but has since fallen behind and sits at nine per cent.
What’s the big picture?
A Hamon win would probably be very similar to a Mélenchon win, albeit less unsettling to the EU.
Pictures courtesy of France24/Youtube, Parti socialiste, UMP Photos, OFFICIAL LEWEB PHOTOS, Global Panorama, Pierre-Selim
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