Advertisement

Polling dates confirmed for France's hotly-contested 2022 presidential election

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
Polling dates confirmed for France's hotly-contested 2022 presidential election
French President Emmanuel Macron and his main rival, Marine Le Pen, both gave TV interviews on Sunday. Here's what you need to know. (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP)

The dates that voters in France head to the polls to pick their new president have been officially confirmed by the French government.

Advertisement

Government spokesman Gabriel Attal on Tuesday confirmed that polling days will be April 10th, 2022, for the first round and April 24th for the second round. As is usual in French elections, both days are Sundays.

The dates had been announced earlier by French TV, but have now been formally confirmed.

French presidents hold a five-year mandate and elections are on fixed dates - as in the USA - rather than called by the Prime Minister as is the case in the UK.

READ ALSO Five minutes to understand France's 2022 presidential election

Advertisement

French voters head to the polls in the first round to vote for any of the officially declared candidates, and then vote again two weeks later for one of the two highest-scoring candidates from the first round.

Current polling suggests that incumbent president Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen will be the two second round candidates, in a re-run of the 2017 election.

However French elections are predictably only in their unpredictability and many of the largest parties have not yet decided on a candidate, while Macron himself is yet to confirm that he will run.

The regional elections held in June - the las time the French go to the polls before the presidential vote - were remarkable for record voter abstention, while Le Pen's party did significantly worse than predicted and Macron's failed to progress to the second round in several areas.

READ ALSO Granny-hugging to crowd-bathing - the essential vocab to understand French politics

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also