Post by Admin on Apr 16, 2022 20:19:16 GMT
How does the election work?
To elect their new President, French voters head to the polls twice.
The first vote, on Sunday, saw 12 candidates run against each other. They qualified for the race by securing endorsements from 500 mayors and/or local councilors from across the country.
Macron and Le Pen received the most votes, but since neither won more than 50%, they will head to a runoff on Sunday, April 24.
This isn't the only national vote France faces this year -- parliamentary elections are also due to take place in June.
What dates do I need to know?
Macron and Le Pen will hold one debate on the evening of April 20 that will be aired by French broadcasters France 2 and TF1.
The runoff election will then take place on Sunday April 24.
Candidates are not allowed to campaign the day before the vote, or on election day itself, and the media will be subject to strict reporting restrictions from the day before the election until polls close at 8 p.m. Sunday in France.
What do the polls show?
A much closer contest than the 2017 election.
Macron and Le Pen both increased their total share of the vote in this year's first round compared with 2017, but surveys ahead of the first round on April 10 showed Le Pen enjoyed a late surge of support in March.
Polling by Ifop-Fiducial released on April 10 suggests Macron would win a second-round contest against Le Pen by just 51% to 49%. Macron's advantage has increased in the days since the first round results came in, but two weeks is a long time in politics -- and a lot could change between now and election day.
Political analysts often say the French vote with their heart in round one, then vote with their head in round two -- meaning they choose their ideal candidate first, then opt for the lesser of two evils in the second round.
Macron saw this play out in 2017. He and Le Pen scored 24% and 21.3% of the first round vote and then 66.1% and 33.9% in the second round, respectively.
To be reelected, Macron will likely need to convince far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon's supporters to back him. Melenchon came in third place with 22% of the vote. On Sunday, Melenchon told his supporters "we must not give a single vote to Mrs. Le Pen," but did not explicitly back Macron.