French presidential elections:the political parties and their candidates
The list of presidential aspirants released to the public on March 7,2022 by the Conseil Constitutionnel contained 12 candidates.It reflected the tradition of a multi-party system despite the fact that many aspirants abandoned the race due to the requirement of 500 signatures from elected representatives.In gender terms,the list contained four women,in terms of generation gap,the candidates were between 44 and 70 years old and in professional terms,they were former ministerial advisers,ex-ministers,two products of the civil service academy or ENA and all the candidates are on the right or on the left side of the political spectrum.
Right wing presidential candidates
Valérie Pécress,a former minister of education in the government of Nicolas Sarkozy was the presidential candidate of the LR or les républicains.In fact,in the years before the minister won the primaries of the party of Gaullists,not many people predicted her presidential nomination.But at the primaries,she defeated prominent LR leaders like Xavier Bertrand and Michel Barnier and outside her political party,she faced three other candidates.
Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour are two popular politicians of the far right movement.Marine Le Pen of the Rassemblement national(National Coalition)has been in the presidential race for a long time and her rival,the journalist and commentator is testing the waters of the presidential race for the first time.Quite different in political ideas and positions are Nicolas Dupont-Aignan of Debout La France and Jean Lassalle,the leader of Face the Challenges with Jean Lassalle.
Left wing presidential candidates
Anne Hidalgo was elected by the Parti socialiste as their presidential candidate.The present mayor of Paris was the deputy of the charismatic Bertrand Delanoe during his mandates.As the candidate of the most popular left-wing party since 1981.She wrote her Letter to the French but the dynamics of her campaign did not receive the usual Parti socialiste exuberance due to the presentation of other left-wing candidates.For instance,the posters of Jean-Luc Melenchon of La France insoumise were visible in the main districts of Paris as well as the posters of Fabien Roussel,the candidate of the Communist party many weeks before the election day.
Philippe Poutou,Yannik Jadot and Nathalie Arthaud are other candidates on the left.Yannik Jadot,represents the values and the ideals of the Environmentalists,as demonstrated by Dominique Voynet in the 1997 government of La Gauche plurielle.Philippe Poutou,of the New anti-capitalist party took over from Olivier Besancenot,the popular Trotskyist and Nathalie Arthaud remained faithful to the no-sense approach of Arlette Laguiller,of the Lutte Ouvriere.
