Monday, April 9, 2007: Beginning
of the official campaign
Presidential elections: President
to be elected for five years.
Sunday April 22, 2007: First round
Sunday, May 6, 2007: Second round
Legislative elections: 577 members
of the French parliament to be elected for five years.
Sunday, June 10: First round
Sunday, June 17, 2007: Second round
Declared candidates for Presidential election
There are today 40 declared candidates for the
election on April 22, 2007. The prospective candidates must nevertheless
have collected the signatures of 500 out of 47 289 elected officials,
from 30 different “departments”, between 22 February
and 16 March. Each official can give his signature to one candidate
only.
The President of the French Republic is elected
for 5 years (since the 2002 referendum). There were 41 194 689 registered
voters in 2002. French population today: 63 million. For more details
about official French statistics in English, visit INSEE.
Nicolas Sarkozy, 52,
President of the UMP Party (Union for a Popular Movement) since
November 2004, elected with 85% of the votes; currently Secretary
of State for the Interior in Dominique de Villepin’s cabinet
and President of the Council of the Département des Hauts-de-Seine,
situated West and South of Paris. He was the only candidate for
the presidential nomination at the UMP Congress, on 14 January 2007.
He re-united his political family and obtained a large support from
prominent ( Alain Juppé and Michèle Alliot-Marie,
in particular) and most other UMP members who voted in January 2007.
Out of the 338,000 members of the UMP, 89% or 233,779 voted, and
229,303 or 98% of these voted for Nicolas Sarkozy. Among his right-hand
men many former Ministers: Patrick Devedjian, Brice Hortefeux, François
Fillon, and Michel Barnier. His spokesman is Xavier Bertrand (current
Health minister). In 2002, the official UMP candidate was Jacques
Chirac who obtained 19.88% of the votes in the first round.
Ségolène Royal,
53, President of the Poitou-Charentes Region, elected by the Socialist
Party, and supported by the Radical Leftists. She was nominated
the party’s official candidate on 26 November, 2006, with
more than 60% of the votes. Her rivals were Dominique Strauss-Kahn,
and Laurent Fabius, other leading Socialists and former government
ministers. She was a junior Minister, for the Environment (in 1992),
then Education (2000), then the Family and Children (2001), in Socialist-Communist
governments. One of her colleagues, Martine Aubry, then Minister
of Labour in Lionel Jospin’s cabinet, passed the law which
imposed the 35-hour work week on most firms in 2000. Her spokesman
is Julien Dray, currently socialist member of the French parliament
and former communist activist. Lionel Jospin obtained 16.18% of
the votes in the first round of the presidential elections in 2002.
François Bayrou,
55, President of the UDF Party (Union for French Democracy) and
Member of the Parliament for Pyrénées-Atlantiques
(in the south-west). Out of the 33,000 members of this center party,
98% voted for him. He was a presidential candidate in 2002 and obtained
6.84% of the national vote. He was minister for Education (1993-1997).
He refused to merge UDF with UMP when the latter was set up in 2002.
His spokesman is Jean-Christophe Lagarde, Mayor of Drancy , member
of Parliament for Seine-Saint-Denis (North of Paris).
Jean-Marie Le Pen, 78,
the oldest of the candidates. President of the FN (Front National),
he has already been a candidate four times. He hopes to repeat his
score of 2002 with 16.86% of the votes which put him in second place,
behind the incumbent President of France, Jacques Chirac, whom he
unsuccessfully challenged in the second round of the presidential
elections. This time he has the backing of a former Presidential
contender, Bruno Mégret, who obtained 2.34% of the votes
in 2002.
Philippe de Villiers,
57, a member of UDF until 1994, now President of the MPF (Movement
for France). He was a candidate in 1995 and got 4.74% of the votes.
Frédéric Nihous,
40. His party, CNPT, (Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Tradition) obtained
4.23% of the votes in 2002. The candidate then was André
Saint-Josse.
Corinne Lepage, 55,
President of an environmental movement, Cap 21, and former environment
minister from 1995 to 1997. In 2002, she scored 1.88%.
Antoine Waechter, 57,
President of the Independent Ecological Movement (MEI). In 1988,
he scored 3.78 %.
Dominique Voynet, 47,
"Green" senator of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, and
former minister for the environment. In 1995, she scored 3.32 %,
and in 2002 her party obtained 5.25% with Noël Mamère.
Marie-George Buffet,
58, leader of the French Communist Party (PCF). She is a former
Minister of Youth and Sports (1997-2002) under the Government of
Lionel Jospin. Madame Buffet was a colleague of Ségolène
Royal when the latter was Junior minister for Education and the
Family. In 2002, her party, then led by Robert Hue, obtained 3.37%
of the votes.
Arlette Laguiller, 67,
is head of "Lutte Ouvrière" (Worker’s fight).
She is a Communist-Trotskyite. This is her 6th candidacy for the
Presidency. In 2002, her score was 5.72%.
Olivier Besancenot,
32, heads the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR). He was also
a candidate in 2002 and scored 4.25%.
