An article was previously published bringing together the list of candidates for the 2022 French presidential election in the context of the French presidency of the EU.

With the analytics provided by the Policy-Insider.AI platform, several blog posts were published on the follow-up to the French presidential campaign of 2022. We looked at the impact that sudden events can have on a campaign, social media strategies as well as Twitter trends of The Congress of Republicans candidates. Here is the list of all the official, supposed and withdrawn candidacies for the French presidential election of 2022.

Updated on 5 March 2022.

The final candidates to the French presidential election

By 4 March 2022, candidates to the French presidential elections in 2022 needed to present a minimum of 500 signatures collected from elected policymakers. The following 11 candidates will now run the race for the French presidency, with elections scheduled for 10 April 2022 (first round) and 24 April 2022 (second round).

• Nathalie Arthaud, Workers’ Fight (Lutte ouvrière), economics teacher and former local elected representative. (570 signatures)
• Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, France Arise (Debout la France), MP for the Essonne department and former mayor of Yerres. (582 signatures)
• Anne Hidalgo, Socialist Party (Parti socialiste, PS), mayor of Paris since 2014. (1.387 signatures)
• Yannick Jadot, Europe Ecology – The Greens (Europe Écologie Les Verts, EELV) MEP since 2009 and former campaign director for Greenpeace France (689 signatures)
• Jean Lassalle, former member of the centre party (MoDem) and MP for the Pyrénées-Atlantique department. (620 signatures)
• Emmanuel Macron, La République en Marche, incumbent French President since 2017. (1.974 signatures)
• Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Unbowed France (La France Insoumise, FI), former senator and MEP, is actually MP for the Bouches-du-Rhône department (873 signatures)
• Marine Le Pen, National Rally (Rassemblement national), MP for Pas-de-Calais’s department. She was MEP (2004-2017). (603 signatures)
• Valérie Pécresse, The Republicans (Les Républicains), won the Congress of Republicans (the primary of the conservative) on 4 December 2021. The Republicans party officially invested her on 11 December 2021 as candidate of the party to the presidential election. (2.556 signatures)
• Philippe Poutou New Anti-capitalist Party (596 signatures)
• Fabien Roussel, French Communist Party (Parti communiste français, PCF), MP of the Nord department and journalist (619 signatures)
• Éric Zemmour, Reconquest! (Reconquête !), political journalist and author, he announced his candidacy on 30 November 2021 in a YouTube video. (721 signatures)

Macron finally declares he’s running again

You will note that incumbent President Emmanuel Macron is now finally on the list of candidates. With his declaration to run on 3 March 2022, Macron waited until the last moment. Of course, that timing had been strategically chosen way before the war in Ukraine started. While the announcement was overshadowed by the escalation in Ukraine, history has shown that times of uncertainty increase the chances of incumbent candidates being reelected. Indeed, some latest poll put him now at over 30% of votes in the first round.

The number of signatures from patrons does not indicate the chances of election

While Macron is now polled leading at over 30%, he has only received the second-highest number of signatures from supporters (1.974 from a total of 12.751). It is actually Pécresse who is leading that list, with a total of 2.556 signatures collected. However, she’s now only fifth in the polls, behind Le Pen, Zemmour and Mélenchon.

The candidates to the French presidential election that did not collect enough signatures

Last update 3 February 2022 and with final candidates removed from the list on 5 March 2022.

Candidates supported by a party (in alphabetical order):

• François Asselineau, Popular Republican Union (Union Populaire Républicaine, UPR), former Inspector General for finances.
• Florian Philippot, The Patriots (Les Patriotes), ex vice-president of Marine Le Pen’s party and former MEP
• Philippe Poutou, New Anticapitalist Party (Nouveau Parti Anticapitalist, NPA) former trade unionist (CGT) at Ford company

Others independant candidates to the French presidential election:

• Nagib Azergui, founder of Union of French Muslim Democrats.
• Philippe Furlan, computer scientist who has lived in San Francisco for a long time, he wants to lead a 100% digital campaign and highlights the Citizens’ Initiative Referendum (measure claimed by the yellow vests in 2018).
• Jean-Marc Governatori, Ecology cape (Cap Écologie), although he arrived last in the Ecology Pole presidential primary, he maintained his candidacy for the presidential election (Update 21/01/2022).
• Fabrice Grimal, Citizen Concorde 2022, is an entrepreneur, author and yellow vest. Several groups of yellow vests have nominated him as “citizen candidate” for the 2022 presidential election.
• Fadi Kassem, national secretary and candidate of the Communist Renaissance Pole in France (PRCF)
• Georges Kuzmanovic, Sovereign Republic, former adviser to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is a sovereignist candidate and calls for leaving the European Union.
• Luc Laforets, A perspective – the 6th Republic, wants to put an end to delinquency and environmental problems and proposes a constitutional revision.
• Gilles Lazzarini, Political Party for Peace and the Protection of the Planet (5P), founder of an NGO for the planet, proposes solutions for the environment and campaigns against the “vaccine pass”.
• Philippe Mazuel, former deputy mayor of Abbeville (Somme). He is president and founder of PACE, Party of European Citizens.
• Martin Rocca, Constituent 2022, student, proposes an institutional change via a revision of the Constitution.
• Stéphane Tauthui, municipal councilor divers droite (Various Right) in Malakoff (Hauts-de-Seine).
• Hélène Thouy, member of the Animalist party.
• Gildas Vieira, La France autrement (France differently), doctor in public health and deputy mayor of Blois, citizen candidate.
• Antoine Waechter, a former candidate for The Greens to the 1988 French presidential election, is a candidate for his own party, the Independent Environmental Movement (MEI).

Candidates without party support: 

• Corinne Békaert, company director from Dunkerque (Update 24/01/2022).
• Yvan Benedetti, spokesman of the French Nationalist Party.
• Marie Cau, she was the first transgender person to become Mayor. 
• Clara Egger, she is a teacher researcher and leader of the group Espoir RIC formed after the yellow jackets movement.
• Anasse Kazib, a trade unionist for railway workers (Cheminots sud rail).
• Gaspard Koenig, writer and philosopher is candidate since 11 January 2022. He created a political movement called “Simple” to promote legislative simplification.
• Alexandre Langlois, former policeman and trade unionist (Vigi.Ministère de l’Intérieur). 
• Antoine Martinez, former general in the Air Force.
• Arnaud Montebourg, former Minister of the Economy (2012-2014). He has no party even if he was member of the left-wing party Socialist Party before (Update 20/01/2022).
• Gérard Pignol, former teacher, wants to make education a national priority. He protests against the difficulty for the “small candidates” to obtain the 500 signatures of elected officials.
• Stéphanie Rivoal worked in finance, NGOs and served as French Ambassador to Uganda. Disappointed by Macron, she decided to be a candidate.
• Rafik Smati, a French entrepreneur born in Algiers, he is close to The Republicans party, but is considered politically unclassifiable.
• Christiane Taubira, former Minister of Justice (2012-2016). She won on 30 January 2022 the primaire populaire (Popular Primary).
• Serge Tinland, criticizes political professionals and calls for participatory democracy. He is candidate for the second time.
• Benjamin Victor Boucher, from Reunion, presents his candidacy to make the voice of all citizens heard.
• Stéphane Wendlinger, mathematics teacher in Ardèche.
• Clément Wittmann, supporter of degrowth, he proposes radical ecological measures.

The primaries

Ecology Pole presidential primary

The 2021 ecology primary took place on 19 September 2021 (first round) and 28 September 2021 (second round) to nominate the candidate of the Ecologist Pole electoral coalition.

This primary was open to any French citizen over the age of 16, through a contribution of €2 and membership in a “charter of ecological values”. 122,670 voters were registered, which was 7 times more than in the 2016 primary. More than 85% took part in the two rounds of voting.

Five candidates were in the running: 

• Delphine Batho 
• Jean-Marc Governatori
• Yannick Jadot: winner in the second round with 51.03% of the vote.
• Éric Piolle 
• Sandrine Rousseau 

The Congress of Republicans (Congrès des Républicains)

The 2021 The Republicans (LR) congress, also known as the Congress for France (Congrès pour la France), was an organised internal primary held from 1 to 4 December. Five participants collected the required sponsorships to take part to the primary:

• Michel Barnier
• Xavier Bertrand
• Eric Ciotti
• Philippe Juvin
• Valérie Pécresse winner of the second round with 60.95% of the vote

Although only members of the Republicans party could take part in the vote, more than 100,000 voters took part in this election.

Xavier Bertrand finally announced on 11 October 2021 to take part in the Congress of Republicans. He also re-joined the Republican party he left in 2017. On the contrary, Denis Payre failed to gather the necessary sponsorships to participate in the Congress of Republicans and had to give up his candidacy.

This late membership in the Congress of Republicans prejudiced the candidacy of Xavier Bertrand. Indeed, he came in 4th place after Eric Ciotti (1st), Valérie Pécresse (2nd) and Michel Barnier (3rd). The arrival at the head of Eric Ciotti created surprise within the party. With a difference of only 665 votes, Valérie Pécresse received the support of all the other candidates for the second round.

Candidates to the primaire populaire (Popular Primary)

The popular primary is a primary election organized by independent activists in France ahead of the 2022 presidential election in order to nominate a common candidate for the left. This primary takes place in two stages. First, a sponsorship of candidates between July and October 2021 online. Then, a majority judgment vote in early 2022.

On 15 January 2022, the preselection phase of the primary selected seven candidates:

• Anna Agueb-Porterie, Left, Co-founder of Notre Maison Brûle (our house is on fire).Clémentine Autain, Member of the National Assembly for Seine-Saint-Denis’s 11th constituency.
• Anne Hidalgo, already candidate to the 2022 French presidential election for the Socialist Parti (PS)
• Yannick Jadot, already candidate to the 2022 French presidential election for The Greens party (EELV)
• Pierre Larrouturou, founder of the Nouvelle Donne party (New Situation), currently MEP.
• Charlotte Marchandise, winner of LaPrimaire.org in 2016, did not get the 500 sponsorships required to participate in the 2017 presidential elections.
• Jean-Luc Mélenchon, already candidate to the 2022 French presidential election for Unbowed France (La France Insoumise, FI). However, he has already declared refusing to participate in the popular primary.
• Christiane Taubira, candidate for the 2002 presidential elections for the Left Radical Party (PRG) and former Minister of Justice (2012-2016).

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Anne Hidalgo and Yannick Jadot, all three already candidates for the presidential election, have announced refusing to participate in this primary. Likewise, Christiane Taubira declared that she would not be a presidential candidate so as not to compete with other candidates on the left. However, she announced on 9 January 2022 that if she won the popular primary, she would campaign for the presidential elections.

Macron missing in these lists?

Although very high in the polls, the incumbent President, Emmanuel Macron, has still not announced his candidacy.

On 29 November 2021, several parties of the French presidential majority, La République en Marche (LaREM), the Democratic Movement (MoDem) and Agir & Horizon, came together to launch a “common house”, Together citizens! (Ensemble citoyens !). This movement intended to bring together political forces in order to support the candidacy of the incumbent president, Emmanuel Macron.

This idea, launched two years ago by François Bayrou, leader of the Modem, is supported in particular by Edouard Philippe, mayor of Le Havre and former prime minister of Emmanuel Macron (2017-2020) and Richard Ferrand, president of the National Assembly. However, Emmanuel Macron has still not officially announced his candidacy. The aim of this gathering is not only to prepare for the presidential elections of 2022, but also for the legislative elections to come.

Candidacies withdrawn

• Jean-Frédéric Poisson, The way of the people (La Voie du Peuple, VIA), former manager, former MP for the Yvelines department and former mayor of Rambouillet.) Following the formalization of Eric Zemmour’s candidacy, he withdrew his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election on 5 December 2021. In addition, he is joining Eric Zemmour’s campaign and will be responsible for leading the collection of the sponsorships necessary for the nomination of candidates for the presidential elections. ( 🔗 This article explains the conditions for being invested as a candidate for the Presidency of the French Republic).
• Jacline Mouraud, one of the leaders of the yellow jackets movement. She also withdrew her candidacy on 5 December 2021 and announced her support for Eric Zemmour.
• Arnaud Montebourg, without party support, withdrew his candidacy on 19 January 2022. He had tried to bring together the candidates of the left without succeeding on 8 December 2021. He withdrew so as not to increase divisions on the left without supporting another candidate.

If you want to know more about Twitter trends for French presidential election candidates, play for free with our Twitter trends dashboard. Policy Insider could also be a good tool to keep yourself up to date with candidates’ Twitter activity and to know who is the most active and followed. There will also be insightful articles on the topic coming up soon. Stay tuned! 

This article has originally been published in English. Translations have been generated automatically and may include mistakes.