The French presidential election
and the candidates

Calendar

• 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 the French Presidential election

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.

Until 16 March, 40 declared candidates for the election. The prospective candidates had to collect the signatures of 500 out of 47 289 elected officials, from 30 different “departments”, between 22 February and 16 March. Each official could give his signature to one candidate only.

12 candidates have collected at least 500 signatures:

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.
> Official website: www.sarkozy.fr

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.
> Official website: www.desirsdavenir.org

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).
> Official website: www.bayrou.fr

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.
> Official website: www.frontnational.com

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.
> Official website: www.pourlafrance.fr

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.
> Official website: www.cpnt.asso.fr

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.
> Official website: www.lesverts.fr

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.
> Official website: www.mariegeorge2007.org

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%.
> Official website: www.arlette-laguiller.org

Olivier Besancenot, 32, heads the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR). He was also a candidate in 2002 and scored 4.25%.
> Official website: www.besancenot2007.org

José Bové : an anti-GMO activist, he is also opposed to globalisation, free-marketeering, part time work and liberalising services. He is in favour of giving legal status to all undocumented immigrants, generalising the 35-hour work week for all, and later implementing the 32-hour work week without salary loss.
> Official website: www.unisavecbove.org

Gérard Schivardi : his programme consists of prohibiting all lay-offs and relocations. He is for nationalising key sectors of business, industry and banking, and against free movement of people in the European space.
Official website : www.schivardi2007.com