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Today in France: The latest news from the 2022 French presidential election

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Today in France: The latest news from the 2022 French presidential election
Emmanuel Macron straightens his tie before greeting EU leaders at Versailles. Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP

Each weekday, our early morning roundup 'Today in France' takes a look at the latest news, events and gossip from the campaign trail - here's what is happening on Friday.

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Day 2 in Versailles

Today marks the second day of the summit of EU leaders at Versailles. As well as the serious political discussion, Versailles also offers plenty of opportunity for pomp and circumstance, like these chaps in their fetching jodhpurs.

 

The leaders had dinner together on Thursday night, and Emmanuel Macron also had a private meeting with Italian leader Mario Draghi, his main ally in his quest for greater EU economic integration.

Pensions

It was made as a seemingly throwaway remark, but Macron's announcement that he intends to raise the pension age to 65 has sparked string opposition from the other candidates, as well as many unions.

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Macron's first attempt at pension reform in 2019 - which did not include raising the pension age - sparked the largest transport strikes seen in France since 1968. Judging by the initial reaction to his plan to raise the pension age from 62 to 65, it doesn't seem that his second attempt will be any smoother.

Head-to-head

'Pugilistic' was the word used by many French media to describe the TV debate of Valérie Pécresse and Eric Zemmour. The pair, competing for voters on the right, are currently neck-and-neck at third place in the polls.

Centre-right candidate PĂ©cresse appears to have shifted further to the right since the start of her campaign, controversially referencing the 'great replacement' - a racist conspiracy theory - in her first big campaign speech. Nevertheless Zemmour attacked her as a "technocrat with double standards" while she pointed to his enthusiastic support of Vladimir Putin.

There are more of these one-on-one candidate debates planned if you have lots of time (the PĂ©cresse Zemmour one came in at 1 hour 30 minutes) but Macron has already ruled out taking part in a debate with all 12 candidates, saying he will only take part in a two-person second round debate.

Buy an NFT

Since this is a 2022 election campaign you can now buy NFTs of all the candidates, here's Anne Hidalgo's frankly rather terrifying one . . 

 

We don't actually know exactly what NFTs are or why everyone is talking about them - we were hoping that they would stop being a thing before we had to learn what they are - but you can find the NFTs of all 12 of the candidates here.

Candidates trips

While Macron is busy at Versailles, many of the candidates are leaving Paris on Friday, Anne Hidalgo is in Rennes, Yannick Jadot is in Bordeaux, Eric Zemmour is in Agen and Valérie Pécresse is going to Corrèze.

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Over the weekend several candidates will be taking part in the Climate marches that are happening all over France. Meanwhile on Sunday charities Greenpeace and Oxfam have organised a 'debate of the century' on climate issues, hosted on Twitch, which will be attended by Yannick Jadot, Anne Hidalgo, Fabien Roussel, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Philippe Poutou

 

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