The first round of the 2022 French presidential election will be held on 10 April 2022. Should no candidate win a majority of the vote in the first round, a runoff will be held between the top two candidates on 24 April 2022.
In France, 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.
Many candidates have already declared themselves in the presidential election 2022, but in order to be listed on the first-round ballot, candidates need 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.
Among all, there are several main candidates:
- from the Communist Party (PCF) its chairman Fabien Roussel;
- from "Unsubdued France" (LFI) its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon;
- from the National Association (RN), its leader Marine Le Pen;
- from the Socialists (PS), the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo;
- from the Republicans (LR), former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier;
- from the Debout la France party (DLF), its leader Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.
Macron has not yet officially announced his intention to run for a second presidential term.