DAVID COMMON: DIARY
French presidential elections
Frequently Asked Questions guide to the main candidates and issues
March 12, 2007
AUDIO
When does it happen?
France maintains a two-round voting system for its presidential race. The first round occurs Sunday, April 22. A candidate could win a majority in this round, but more likely the two leading candidates will proceed to the second round on Sunday, May 6.
Who are the main candidates?
Dozens and dozens of people announce they will run for the presidency, but few actually do. Candidates are required to collect 500 signatures from political figures (such as mayors) to qualify for the ballot. Controversially, one mayor in northern France intends to auction off his signature to the highest bidder (he believes it is legal). The main candidates who have, or will likely soon have, enough signatures are Nicolas Sarkozy, Ségolène Royal, François Bayrou and Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Main candidates
How important is the presidency?
Unlike in some countries, the president of France is no figurehead. He or she has ultimate authority over defence and international affairs and holds the power to appoint and dismiss a prime minister. The PM usually comes from the party with the most seats in the legislature, which periodically produces a prime minister from a different political party and ideological leaning than the president. These times are known as "co-habitation." The prime minister chooses the cabinet, but usually in consultation with the Elysée (the presidential palace and seat of power).
What are the issues?
Unemployment remains the big one, in a country where the rate is above 10 per cent, but political corruption is another (many of Chirac's advisers have been convicted, some jailed, for various frauds). Finally, what to do about immigration and disaffected ethnic minorities is a major issue.
What's different this time?
As in many other countries, the blogosphere is playing a big role. A more visible difference, though, is the candidates' international travel. Canadian politicians don't generally travel overseas as part of their domestic campaigns, but Sarkozy and Royal have reached not just the distant overseas departments of France (such as Martinique) but have travelled to Germany and other nations to show off their foreign policy prowess.
French conservative presidential contender Nicolas Sarkozy visits the Arago coast guard patrol boat on March 5 in Marseille, southern France. (Associated Press)
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy has been involved in politics since 1983, serving as mayor of a Paris suburb and later as finance and interior ministers. The 52-year-old casts himself as a modernizer, who will aggressively tackle France's high unemployment, cut taxes and take a tough stance on immigration as leader of the centre-right UMP party — Union for a Popular Movement.
As interior minister, he gained domestic and international profile in 2005 for describing young protesters who lit fires and battled police as "scum." Most of them were the French-born children of North African Muslim immigrants. This led many of France's minorities to despise Sarko (his nickname), but also solidified his support among those who would like to curb immigration. He is the son of a Hungarian father and French mother.
Unlike many French politicians and senior civil servants, Sarkozy did not attend the elitist ENA — Ecole Nationale d'Administration. Many watchers have said he emulates Tony Blair. Sarkozy was initially a protege of Chirac, but the two fell out in 1995, when Sarkozy supported a Chirac adversary in presidential elections. Sarkozy subsequently outmanoeuvred Chirac's chosen successor for his party's nomination, current Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. He has been married twice and has three children.
French Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal enters her car after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on March 6. (Markus Schreiber/Associated Press)
Ségolène Royal
Ségolène Royal presents voters with a choice they've never had before: a female candidate from a mainstream party. To get to this point, Sego (her nickname) had to endure nasty comments and suggestions from within her own party, mostly from male politicians. (For instance, she was asked who would look after her children if she won).
But, her easygoing nature helped her handily win the nomination of the PS — the Socialist Party.
Royal began her political career as an adviser to François Mitterrand, where she met her partner, François Hollande, the father of her four children and head of the PS. The 53-year-old former environment minister does not have the political experience of her main adversary, Sarkozy.
Her critics point to gaffes, particularly related to foreign policy, which have exemplified that lack of experience. In one instance, she was asked how many nuclear submarines France has. She didn't know (the country has seven). In another case, famous now to Canadians, she seemed to support the idea of Quebec sovereignty.
Royal spent the early months of the campaign in a self-described "listening phase," travelling to dozens of communities before announcing a 100-point plan that included generous unemployment and family benefits, and renationalizing utilities.
Interestingly, Royal sued her father in 1972 for failing to provide for the family (she won). One of her brothers implicated another brother (a French spy) in the bombing of a Greenpeace ship in New Zealand as it prepared to protest French nuclear tests. This has not been an election issue.
Centrist presidential candidate François Bayrou attends a meeting with union representatives of Airbus employees March 5 at a hotel near Toulouse, southwestern France. (Remy Gabalda/Associated Press)
François Bayrou
If there is a dark horse, it is François Bayrou — a fitting role for a breeder of racehorses. While presidential politics are usually a clear race between left and right, the centre-candidate Bayrou has surprised many in his latest attempt at the top job by securing 20 per cent popularity in some polls.
Those same polls have suggested the 55-year-old former education minister could win against Sarkozy or Royal in the second round of voting.
His popularity seems less to do with his policies than with general discomfort over the sniping between the two big candidates. The main plank in his platform is to create a unity government, using the best talents from all parties. He has suggested he would appoint a Socialist as prime minister. The part-time farmer has also been billed as the only candidate who can milk cows.
Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen delivers a speech during a campaign rally in Lyon, southeastern France, on March 11. (Laurent Cipriani/Associated Press)
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Though he has run in more races than the other three main candidates combined, Jean-Marie Le Pen continues to campaign as the outsider.
The extreme-right candidate called Nazi gas chambers a "point of detail," and in 1999 he was dragged before the courts after several assault rifles were found in the trunk of his car. However, many of his policies appeal to a large section of French society.
He would reduce ties with the United States and Europe and severely restrict immigration. In the last elections, he received nearly 17 per cent of the vote, putting him into the second round against Chirac, where he was soundly beaten. Many voters had been shocked at his success, and Chirac took a huge majority.
At the time of writing, Le Pen did not yet have enough signatures from mayors to be officially named a candidate, though this may only be part of his "little guy" image. At 76, many expect this will be Le Pen's last run, and he will likely turn over the reins to his daughter, who is trying to modernize the party.
Who are the other better-known candidates?
On the left, Olivier Besancenot, Marie-George Buffet and Arlette Laguiller, the conservative Philippe de Villiers, the anti-globalist farmer Jose Bove and environmentalist Dominique Voynet.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Biography
David Common is the CBC News correspondent in France, from where he covers much of Europe and often travels as far afield as Afghanistan where he has spent weeks at a time reporting on Canada's military operations there.
