For Macron, who has for years tried to paint himself as a pragmatic, liberal political outsider, this swerve to the right has not been too difficult to navigate. Young progressive voters are disengaged from politics.Īs a result, big electoral debates over immigration, law and order, and France’s influence on the world stage are playing out almost entirely on the right.

The French progressive movement remains split as a result of intra-party infighting and ideological differences. This is in part because the once-potent French left has imploded since former President François Hollande of the Socialist Party left office in 2017 as one of the country’s most unpopular leaders. The French electorate is now decidedly right-leaning. And more recently, far(ther)-right firebrand Éric Zemmour - a media shock jock who likes to say provocative things to get attention - has entered the political fray.Ĭenter right vs right vs far right. Trailing Macron in the polls is Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right National Rally party, who in recent years has abandoned part of her populist economic agenda to broaden her appeal.

She faces off against incumbent President Emmanuel Macron, a wishy-washy centrist who is not particularly popular and would reap about a quarter of votes if elections were held today. Pécresse, the first woman to head the center-right party of Charles de Gaulle, is hoping to reinvigorate a group that’s been marginalized in French politics in recent years as anti-establishment sentiment has gripped the electorate. The slate of presidential candidates is now finalized after Les Républicains on Saturday elected Valerie Pécresse to head the ticket.

The French will head to the polls in just twelve weeks, and the race has started to get very interesting. But there’s another big election heating up in Europe. Germany has been the European center of political attention in recent months, as punk-rock god Angela Merkel exits the stage after almost two decades at the helm.

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