PARIS (FRANCE) – A crowded field of presidential hopefuls is jostling for attention ahead of France’s 2027 election, as mainstream candidates seek to derail a showdown between the far right and hard left.
Less than six months until the first round vote in April 2027, here’s a run-down of the candidates:
– Far right leading polls –
Marine Le Pen, leading figure of the far-right National Rally (RN), tops the polls to succeed centrist President Emmanuel Macron.
With three unsuccessful presidential bids already under her belt — she came in third in 2012, then twice made the run-offs against Macron — the 58-year-old and her nationalist and anti-immigration party are eyeing their best chance yet to take power.
She declared her candidacy after an appeals court earlier this year upheld a graft conviction against her, but shortened a ban on her holding public office.
Many backers have not been put off by her legal troubles, and she seems to have benefited from recent convulsions in France, which have seen violence flare on the sidelines of mass cost-of-living rallies.
Critics accuse her eurosceptic party of remaining fundamentally racist.
She sparked heated reactions recently when she told American news channel CBS that there was “no discrimination in France” and that it was the “least racist” country, a claim disputed by rights groups.
Le Pen is by far the most prominent far-right contender, projected to receive more than 30 percent of the vote in recent opinion polls.
This week Eric Zemmour, the 68-year-old leader of the anti-immigration Reconquete party, joined the fray to “preserve a French France”. But he has been polling at around three percent.
– The left locks in –
Hard-left France Unbowed’s (LFI) Jean-Luc Melenchon is second in recent opinion polls — though still trailing behind Le Pen by 15 percentage points, raising the chances of a second round run-off between him and Le Pen.
Melenchon’s recent book on his political programme is a bestseller in France, but the firebrand political veteran remains a divisive figure.
The 75-year-old is running for a fourth time after coming third in the last elections in 2022.
Melenchon’s main rival on the left is Raphael Glucksmann, an EU lawmaker who came out on top of a centre-left primary in October.
The 46-year-old leader of the small Place Publique party now faces the challenge of uniting the divided mainstream left.
The French left has been shut out of the presidential second round ever since Francois Hollande won in 2012.
Hollande, for his part, is pressing ahead with his own campaign to retake the Elysee despite Glucksmann’s victory, eyeing a candidacy announcement in the coming months.
– Centre-right jostling –
The centre and traditional right has been led by the mayor of the northern port city of Le Havre Edouard Philippe, but the 55-year-old former prime minister has been flagging in the polls.
Three other contenders on the centre-right, former premier Gabriel Attal, 37, former interior minister Bruno Retailleau, 65, and Cannes mayor David Lisnard, 57, are discussing holding a primary — opposed still by Philippe.
“None of us is currently in a position, alone, to create enough momentum to convince the French in the first round and prevent a brutal clash between the National Rally and France Unbowed,” Retailleau wrote to the other three this month, proposing a primary in January and February.
Another former prime minister, 72-year-old Dominique de Villepin, has signalled he will run, while holding off on officially announcing his candidacy and rebuffing a recent primary proposal from Attal.
– Wild cards and question marks –
A potential upset for the centrist scramble came in the form of European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde, whose choice to step down months before her term ends has spurred reports she is planning a run, though she has in the past ruled it out.
A Cluster17 poll commissioned by Politico this week suggested the 70-year-old would rival Philippe if she ran.
Lagarde, who served in the governments of France’s centre-right presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, has hinted that she could get involved in campaigning for the presidential vote, saying it was important to have a “European voice” in debates.
A surprise contender also emerged this week in the form of France’s five-time Olympic judo champion Teddy Riner, who announced a presidential bid after expressing concern about the “rise of the far right”.
Riner, 37, said in a social media post he feared France could soon become deeply divided, appearing to cast himself as a candidate for voters unwilling to choose between two political extremes — the far right and the hard left.
