Incumbent president, candidate twice convicted of incitement and far-right candidate - French election
The first round of the French presidential election will begin on April 10, and the leading candidates are the recognized couple incumbent President Emanuel Macron and far-right leader Marin Le Pen.
Who else is running and what is bothering the French voter?
Tali Goldstein
10/04/2022
Sunday, 10 April 2022, 08:30 Updated: 08:32
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An incumbent president has run for a second term, a candidate twice convicted of inciting religious and racist hatred, and another far-right candidate ranked third will run today (Sunday) in the first round of France's presidential election.
According to polls, Emanuel Macron, the incumbent president, is expected to win.
However, his close rival, Marin Le Pen, has recently come up in the polls - suggesting a closer race than the previous contest between the two in the 2017 election campaign.
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Expected to win.
French President Emmanuel Macron (Photo: Reuters)
When are the elections and how are they conducted?
Citizens of France will have to go to the polls twice to elect a new president.
The first round will take place today and will feature 12 candidates.
In the event that neither of them receives 50% of the votes in the first round, the two candidates with the most votes will continue to the second round to be held on Sunday, April 24th.
In June, parliamentary elections will also be held in France.
Mediation attempts.
Emanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin (Photo: Reuters)
Who is competing?
Macron, who is finishing his first term, has had to face it again knowing that since President Jacques Chirac in 2002, no incumbent president has been elected to a second term in France.
Macron, a former investment banker who studied at the country’s prestigious educational institutions, provoked public outrage when he imposed a tax on fuel early in his tenure.
The "yellow vests" movement swept the entire country into one of the longest-running protests in the history of France.
In December 2018, the French government withdrew from it and announced a delay in raising the fuel tax following the violent demonstrations.
This was a significant setback for Macron, who placed the promotion of green energy use at the center of his policy.
In the international arena, Macron's efforts to please Macron, his attempts to sabotage the defense agreement of the defense alliance AUKUS (AU - Australia, UK - UK and US USA) and his diplomatic failure to prevent war in Ukraine do not add to his respect in the world.
But his unwavering support for the European Union, in contrast to La Penn who opposes the organization's continued existence, has strengthened its external and internal status.
Macron also had to deal with the corona plague and more than two years of closures and the obligation to wear masks.
He even caused a stir in the country, after saying that the purpose of the "green character" restrictions are to "irritate the non-vaccinated" against Corona.
Monopoly on the far right.
Marine Le Pen (Photo: Reuters)
The main competitor
Marin Le Pen has become synonymous with the far right in France in the last decade.
Le Pen, the daughter of the nationalist politician and founder of the radical right-wing National Front party Jean-Marie Le Pen, is now a Member of Parliament in the Calais region - the gateway to Britain where hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern immigrants arrive on their way to the United Kingdom.
Le Pen, who opposes immigration, ran against Macron in the 2017 election and lost by a considerable margin (Macron received 66.06% of the vote).
Le Pen's campaign this time focused on mainstream support.
She still strongly opposes immigration but has softened her views slightly on controversial issues such as Islam and aeroscopy to win the votes of voters outside her far-right base.
However, two leading agendas in her campaign are still stopping "uncontrolled migration" and "erasing Islamist ideologies."
Moreover, Le Pen is a fan of Russian President Vladimir Putin and so the war in Ukraine did not contribute to her campaign.
Perhaps because of this in recent weeks Le Pen has placed the cost of living at the forefront of its campaign and promised to strengthen consumers' purchasing power through measures such as "dropping 150-200 euros a month into the pocket of every household" as well as raising sales tax by a hundred Consumer Products.
"Of course I consider immigration and insecurity as serious problems that need urgent answers," she said earlier this week on a television program.
"But I worry about the cost of living just as much as I do about the edge of France," she added.
Not ashamed.
Eric Zamor (Photo: GettyImages, Nicolas TUCAT / AFP)
The competitor's competitor
In November 2021, the Jewish journalist Eric Zamor announced that he would run for the presidency of France, in order to "save" the country.
The far-right media man said in a video posted on YouTube that "it was time to change and save France. So I decided to run for president."
Zamor, 63, is causing concern among sections of the Jewish community due to his harsh remarks against immigrants.
He even argued that if Israel has nuclear weapons, there is no reason why Iran should not.
He was even documented doing a triple finger to a passerby in the city of Marseille, in response to her making a similar gesture to him.
Zamor is known for his uncompromising stances regarding Islam, children with non-French names and immigration, and has twice been convicted of inciting and spreading racist hate speech.
In his campaign, Zamor highlighted his racist rhetoric and promised to set up the "Re-Immigration Office" to expel from France about a million people of North African descent.
He believes in the conspiracy theory that immigrants want to replace the French population in France.
In addition, he claims that Islam is a danger that threatens France.
However, Zamor, who confessed in 2018 that he "dreams" of a French Putin, has been deteriorating in polls since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
At the beginning of the invasion he further defended the Russian president, but has since joined the voices condemning the invasion.
The left is not united.
Jean-Luc Melenchon (Photo: Reuters)
More contenders
The radical left-wing candidate in France, Jean-Luc Melenchon, left the French Socialist Party in November 2008 to form the French Left Party with Lieutenant Marc Dolls, and has served as its MEP since 2009. The veteran politician has run in three elections so far.
He supports a "fiscal revolution", greater government involvement in the lives of citizens and a billion-euro program to combat violence against women.
The French left has found itself in the current election without a single leader.
It does not appear that a candidate from the left will advance to the second round.
Although Melanchone has a loyal base of voters from the extreme left, he does not seem to be able to win the votes of more moderate voters.
Apparently even where Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris and the candidate of the Socialist Party, is unlikely to advance to the second round.
According to a survey by the French Institute for Public Opinion (IFOP), Macron leads with 27% of the vote, Le Pen in second place with 23.5% and Melanchone in third place with 17.5%;
According to the survey, Zimor receives only 9% of the votes.
The institute estimates that in the second round Macron will win with 53% of the vote while Le Pen will receive 47% - a much less significant gap than in 2017.
The main issues
The cost of living is among the top issues among French voters this year.
The severe economic consequences of the epidemic in addition to the economic damage caused by the war in Ukraine, including rising energy prices, are affecting wallets and mood.
Like Israel, the climate crisis is absent from the various campaigns.
Moreover, according to data from the NGO L'Affaire du siècle, in the last week of March, only 1.5% of the time spent on elections in the French media focused on environmental issues.
However, even before the invasion of Ukraine environmental issues did not receive proper attention compared to issues like immigration and crime.
Cecil Duplo, former leader of the Green Party and now director of the Oxfam France organization, told France 24 that "the media is bypassing the climate issue on the grounds that it's arousing anxiety and not of interest to the French public. '
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