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The first round of France's 2022 presidential election was held on 10 April. A run-off was held between the top two candidates on 24 April 2022. The incumbent president, Emmanuel Macron from La République En Marche! (LREM), who won in 2017 and whose first term lasts until 13 May 2022, announced on 3 March 2022 that he was launching his re-election bid to a second five-year term for which he is eligible under the Constitution of France. His opponent in the second round was Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the La France Insoumise (LFI), in a major political upset.

Valérie Pécresse, the candidate for The Republicans, took under 5.1% of the vote in the first round, the worst result in the history of the party or its Gaullist predecessors. Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, received 1.41% of the vote, the worst in the history of the Socialist Party (PS). Marine Le Pen of the right-wing Rassemblement National (RN) came third in the first round with 22.1% of the vote and 0.7% behind second-placed Melenchon, in a major blow to both her personal career, and the future of her party.

The first round was widely considered to be a major political shock, with few commentators expecting Le Pen not to make it to the second round. In the aftermath of the first round, the Socialist Party (PS) and Europe Ecology (EELV), announced their merger into the new centre-left party Green Future, which would later go on to endorse Melenchon In the second round

Background
Under Article 7 of the Constitution of France, the President of the Republic is elected to a five-year term in a two-round election. If no candidate secures an absolute majority of votes in the first round, a second round is held two weeks later between the two candidates who received the most votes. According to the Constitution of France, the first round of the presidential election must be held between 20 and 35 days before the transition of power at the end of the five-year term of the incumbent officeholder. As Emmanuel Macron took office on 14 May 2017, the transition of power is expected to take place on 13 May 2022. Correspondingly, the first round of the presidential election will be held between 8 and 23 April 2022, with the second round held two weeks after the first. On 13 July 2021, Government Spokesman Gabriel Attal announced the dates for the election, respectively 10 April 2022 for the first round and 24 April 2022 for the eventual second round.

To be listed on the first-round ballot, candidates needed to secure 500 signatures (often referred to as parrainages in French) from national or local elected officials from at least 30 different departments or overseas collectivities, with no more than a tenth of these signatories from any single department. The signatures were submitted to the Constitutional Council, which is the sole authority to designate participants.

Campaign (First round)
Following the 2017 presidential election, The Republicans (LR) sent its members a questionnaire on the topic of the "refoundation" of the party; of the 40,000 respondents, 70% voted against an open primary like that which was held in 2016 to determine the party nominee. In a document dated 17 October 2017, the Socialist Party (PS) noted that the financing of the 2022 presidential campaign was not assured despite "economic restructuring" but still planned to spend €12,000,000, the maximum legally permitted before the first round. According to the report, the party's leadership had seriously considered the possibility of not presenting a Socialist candidate in 2022.

Marine Le Pen, the president of the National Rally (RN), announced on 16 January 2020 that she was running in the election. She previously ran in the 2012 and 2017 presidential elections as the party's candidate, then called the National Front. She came third in 2012 with 17.9% of the vote in the first round and second in 2017 with 21.3% of the vote in the first round and 33.9% of the vote in the second round. Le Pen was elected to the National Assembly in the 2017 legislative election.

Jean Lassalle, who ran in the 2017 presidential election under the Résistons! banner, coming in seventh place with 1.2% of the vote, announced that he will run again. In 2020, MP Joachim Son-Forget, a radiologist who was elected to the National Assembly for La République En Marche! in 2017, formed a new political party called Valeur Absolue and announced his intention to enter the race for the presidency. He had resigned from the LREM group after posting tweets in 2018 that were deemed sexist; he then joined the UDI and Independents group in 2019 before resigning his membership later that year.

On 8 November 2020, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, founder of La France Insoumise (LFI), announced that he was running in the election. He previously ran in the 2012 presidential election for the Left Front (coming fourth with 11.1% of the vote in the first round) and in the 2017 presidential election for La France Insoumise (coming fourth again with 19.5% of the vote in the first round). Mélenchon was elected to the National Assembly in 2017.

In November 2021, Ensemble Citoyens was founded. It is a political coalition composed of the presidential majority led under Emmanuel Macron.

In January 2022, Éric Zemmour's party, Reconquête, founded the month prior, gained a member of the National Assembly in Guillaume Peltier, previously elected as a member of The Republicans, as well as two Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) when Jérôme Rivière and Gilbert Collard defected from Le Pen's National Rally. Previously, Son-Forget, who had declared he would run for the presidency, rallied behind Zemmour's candidacy. In early February 2022, the party gained a third MEP when Maxette Grisoni-Pirbakas defected from the National Rally. Stéphane Ravier became Zemmour's first supporter in the Senate after he left the National Rally mid-February 2022.

In February 2022, a wave of defections hit Valérie Pécresse, candidate put forward by The Republicans, in favour of Macron. She was accused by members of the party's centrist wing of trying to pander to the voters of Zemmour, whose sharp rise in the polls has been qualified as "meteoric". During a rally in February 2022, Pécresse said "in ten years time ... will we be a sovereign nation, a US satellite or a Chinese trading post? Will we be unified or divided? Nothing is written, whether it is loss of economic status, or the Great Replacement." She was criticised for referring to the Great Replacement; she later said that her mention was not an endorsement of what she considered to be a "theory of hate". She was widely seen to make the comments of the Great Replacement to counter her two major far-right rival candidates, Le Pen and Zemmour.

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on 24 February had significant implications for the campaign. As media coverage switched to covering the war, Macron's polling improved significantly during the crisis. Le Pen and Zemmour were made to explain historic statements of praise for Vladimir Putin. In a 14 March 2022 interview with newspaper Le Figaro, Senate President Gérard Larcher, a supporter of Pécresse, put into question the legitimacy of a possible second Macron term, stating: "If there is no campaign, the question of the legitimacy of the winner will arise." Those comments echoed Macron's refusal to participate in any debate with the other candidates prior to the election's first round.

Marion Maréchal of the Le Pen family, granddaughter of National Front (renamed National Rally in 2018) founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and niece of its current leader Marine Le Pen, formalised her support for Zemmour at a large rally in Toulon on 6 March 2022.

In the final days before the first round of voting, Le Pen's polling numbers improved to within the margin of error of defeating Macron in the second round, while those of Pécresse and Zemmour fell. Mélenchon's polling numbers also surged in the final days of campaigning.

Candidates
On 7 March 2022, the Constitutional Council published names of the 12 candidates who received 500 valid sponsorships, with the order determined by drawing lots.


 * Nathalie Arthaud
 * Fabien Roussel
 * Emmanuel Macron
 * Jean Lassalle
 * Marine Le Pen
 * Éric Zemmour
 * Jean-Luc Mélenchon
 * Anne Hidalgo
 * Yannick Jadot
 * Valérie Pécresse
 * Philippe Poutou
 * Nicolas Dupont-Aignan

Declined to participate

 * Bruno Retailleau, president of The Republicans group in the Senate since 2014 and President of the Regional Council of Pays de la Loire from 2015 to 2017
 * Laurent Wauquiez, President of the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes since 2016, president of The Republicans from 2017 to 2019, Minister of Higher Education and Research from 2011 to 2012 and Government Spokesman from 2007 to 2008
 * François Baroin, Mayor of Troyes since 1995, Senator for Aube from 2014 to 2017 and formerly member of the National Assembly for the 3rd constituency of Aube
 * Jacques Cheminade, candidate of Solidarity and Progress (S&P) in the 1995, 2012 and 2017 presidential elections
 * François Fillon, Prime Minister from 2007 to 2012 and candidate of The Republicans (LR) in the 2017 presidential election
 * Benoît Hamon, regional councillor of Île-de-France since 2015, Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research in 2014 and candidate in the 2017 presidential election with the Socialist Party
 * Gérard Larcher, President of the Senate from 2008 to 2011 and since 2014 and Minister Delegate for Labour from 2004 to 2007
 * Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy, Finance and Recovery since 2017, candidate in the 2016 The Republicans primary and Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fishing
 * Marion Maréchal, member of the National Assembly for the 3rd constituency of Vaucluse from 2012 to 2017 and regional councillor of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur from 2015 to 2017
 * Ségolène Royal, Minister of Ecology from 2014 to 2017 and candidate for 2007 presidential election with the Socialist Party that she left in 2017
 * Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic from 2007 to 2012, eligible for a second term
 * Arnaud Montebourg, Minister of Industrial Renewal from 2012 until 2014 and candidate in the 2012 and 2017 Socialist Party primary, withdrew his candidacy on 19 January 2022
 * Christiane Taubira, Minister of Justice from 2012 until 2014 and the winner of the People's Primary, withdrew her candidacy on 2 March 2022 (endorsed Melenchon)

Sponsorships
A candidate must secure 500 Présentation signatures from elected officials in order to appear on the first-round ballot, with the signature collection period ending on 4 March. The table below lists sponsorships received by the Constitutional Council by candidate. On the form this is named a présentation, but it is more widely known as parrainage. There were 46 persons who received sponsorship as of the closing date deadline of March 4, 2022. Some of them received sponsorship without being candidates. One sponsored himself. Candidates labeled SE ("sans etiquette") do not belong to any professional political party.


 * Colour legend

Ecologist primary
In September 2021, the Ecology Pole organised a presidential primary to determine their candidate. The following candidates participated in this primary:

Nominee

 * Yannick Jadot, Member of the European Parliament since 2009

Eliminated

 * Sandrine Rousseau, deputy national secretary of Europe Ecology – The Greens from 2016 to 2017
 * Delphine Batho, president of Ecology Generation and deputy for the 2nd constituency of Deux-Sèvres since 2013
 * Éric Piolle, Mayor of Grenoble since 2014
 * Jean-Marc Governatori, co-president of Cap Écologie and city councillor for Nice since 2020.

Socialist primary
In October 2021, the Socialist Party had its primary. Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo won with 72% of the vote.

Nominee

 * Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris since 2014

Eliminated

 * Stéphane Le Foll, Mayor of Le Mans since 2018

The Republicans congress
The Republicans selected their candidate via a congress of party members. On 4 December 2021, Valérie Pécresse won the nomination with 60.95% of the votes against Éric Ciotti.

Nominee

 * Valérie Pécresse, President of the Regional Council of Île-de-France since 2016

Eliminated

 * Éric Ciotti, deputy for the 1st constituency of Alpes-Maritimes since 2007
 * Michel Barnier, head of the Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2021
 * Xavier Bertrand, President of the Regional Council of Hauts-de-France since 2016
 * Philippe Juvin, Mayor of La Garenne-Colombes since 2001

People's Primary
Independent activists launched a primary with the intention of nominating a unity left-wing candidate. The voting took place online from 27 to 30 January 2022. Of the seven candidates listed in the primary, three declined to participate. The primary was conducted according to a majority judgment voting system, in which all voters are to rate all candidates, with the candidate with the highest median rating winning.

Nominee

 * Christiane Taubira, Minister of Justice 2012–2016 (withdrew, endorsed Mélenchon)

Eliminated

 * Anna Agueb-Porterie, environmental activist
 * Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris since 2014, Socialist Party candidate (still a candidate)
 * Yannick Jadot, Member of the European Parliament since 2009, Green Party candidate (still a candidate)
 * Pierre Larrouturou, Member of the European Parliament since 2019
 * Charlotte Marchandise, public health expert
 * Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Member of the National Assembly, La France Insoumise candidate (still a candidate)

Opinion polls
The trendlines below are constructed using local regressions.

Results
! colspan="2" rowspan="2"| Candidate ! rowspan="2" colspan="2"| Party ! colspan="2"| 1st round 10 April 2022 ! colspan="2"| 2nd round 24 April 2022 ! width="75"|Votes ! width="30"|% ! width="75"|Votes ! width="30"|% Official results published by the Constitutional Council –1st round result
 * - style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;"
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Emmanuel Macron
 * style="text-align:left;"| La République En Marche!
 * LREM
 * 9,783,058
 * 27.85
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Marine Le Pen
 * style="text-align:left;"| National Rally
 * RN
 * 8,133,828
 * 23.15
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Jean-Luc Mélenchon
 * style="text-align:left;"| La France Insoumise
 * LFI
 * 7,712,520
 * 21.95
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Éric Zemmour
 * style="text-align:left;"| Reconquête
 * R!
 * 2,485,226
 * 7.07
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Valérie Pécresse
 * style="text-align:left;"| The Republicans
 * LR
 * 1,679,001
 * 4.78
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Yannick Jadot
 * style="text-align:left;"| Europe Ecology – The Greens
 * EELV
 * 1,627,853
 * 4.63
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Jean Lassalle
 * style="text-align:left;" | Résistons!
 * RES
 * 1,101,387
 * 3.13
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Fabien Roussel
 * style="text-align:left;"| French Communist Party
 * PCF
 * 802,422
 * 2.28
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Nicolas Dupont-Aignan
 * style="text-align:left;"| Debout la France
 * DLF
 * 725,176
 * 2.06
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Anne Hidalgo
 * style="text-align:left;"| Socialist Party
 * PS
 * 616,478
 * 1.74
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Philippe Poutou
 * style="text-align:left;"| New Anticapitalist Party
 * NPA
 * 268,904
 * 0.76
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Nathalie Arthaud
 * style="text-align:left;"| Lutte Ouvrière
 * LO
 * 197,094
 * 0.56
 * style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" colspan="10"|
 * - style="font-weight:bold"
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Total
 * 35,132,947
 * 100.00
 * style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" colspan="10"|
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Valid votes
 * 35,132,947
 * 97.80
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Blank ballots
 * 543,609
 * 1.53
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Invalid ballots
 * 247,151
 * 0.69
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Turnout
 * 35,923,707
 * 73.69
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Not voted
 * 12,824,169
 * 26.31
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Registered voters
 * 48,747,876
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;"|
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;"|
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;" colspan="10"|
 * style="text-align:left" colspan="10"|
 * style="background-color:;"|
 * style="text-align:left;"| Nathalie Arthaud
 * style="text-align:left;"| Lutte Ouvrière
 * LO
 * 197,094
 * 0.56
 * style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" colspan="10"|
 * - style="font-weight:bold"
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Total
 * 35,132,947
 * 100.00
 * style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" colspan="10"|
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Valid votes
 * 35,132,947
 * 97.80
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Blank ballots
 * 543,609
 * 1.53
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Invalid ballots
 * 247,151
 * 0.69
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Turnout
 * 35,923,707
 * 73.69
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Not voted
 * 12,824,169
 * 26.31
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Registered voters
 * 48,747,876
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;"|
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;"|
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;" colspan="10"|
 * style="text-align:left" colspan="10"|
 * 247,151
 * 0.69
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Turnout
 * 35,923,707
 * 73.69
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Not voted
 * 12,824,169
 * 26.31
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Registered voters
 * 48,747,876
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;"|
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;"|
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;" colspan="10"|
 * style="text-align:left" colspan="10"|
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan="4"| Registered voters
 * 48,747,876
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;"|
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;"|
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;" colspan="10"|
 * style="text-align:left" colspan="10"|
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;"|
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;" colspan="10"|
 * style="text-align:left" colspan="10"|
 * style="background-color:#F4F4F4;" colspan="10"|
 * style="text-align:left" colspan="10"|
 * style="text-align:left" colspan="10"|
 * }

Campaign (Second round)
The second round will be held on 24 April 2022 and will feature a run-off between the top two candidates from the first round, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.

On 14 April 2022, Le Pen said she would hold a referendum on whether to reinstate capital punishment in France if elected.

Endorsements for second round
Poutou, Roussel, and Mélenchon stated their opposition to Le Pen but did not endorse Macron. Arthaud and Lassalle both said they will vote blank, with Lassalle saying he trusts the French people to do what's right.