Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
Presidential elections in France 2022 - statistics & facts
Is the 2022 presidential election a sign of the collapse of the bipartisan system? In the first round on April 10, the candidate of the Parti Socialiste, Anne Hidalgo, and the one of Les Républicains, Valérie Pécresse, both obtained scores of less than five percent. At the time of his election, Emmanuel Macron defended a transpartisan approach that was supposed to go beyond traditional cleavages, which he deemed obsolete. The approach taken by the candidate was confirmed during the first round, as three main blocks of ideas confronted each other. The three leading parties were indeed those of the outgoing president, the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, and the candidate of France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. This realignment marks a historic setback for the two parties that had been present in French political life since the beginning of the Fifth Republic in 1958 and which led the country alternately for thirty years until 2017.
