Special Feature: The French Presidential Elections 2012

Philippe Marlière (UCL French) et.al., April 2012

Charles de Gaulle once said that the French presidential election was "an encounter between the nation and a man" (sic). He may have been right in suggesting that this election is about personality politics - but there is also much more to it.

See below for analyses of this historic European election, including first results, thoughts on candidates, debates, the media, and the "mood" of French voters, provided above all by Philippe Marlière, Professor of French and European Politics at UCL French.

Analysis of the first round of the 2012 French Presidential Elections

Nicolas Sarkozy fights for his political life. Read Philippe Marlière's most recent commentary (23 April 2012), part of his ongoing election diary for Open Democracy.
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France grows tired of Nicolas Sarkozy, its half-baked president

For Philippe Marlière, Sarkozy, like Blair and Cameron, is not a man of deep political conviction. The French, he argued in this Guardian contribution of 19 April 2012, miss a president with a sense of state.
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Jean-Luc Mélenchon's policies are no far-left fantasy

No wonder the Left Front candidate is on the rise in France, Philippe Marlière argued on 15 April 2012 in the Guardian. He offers practical solutions where neoliberalism has failed.
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Pre-Election Analysis: Politics, Populism and Le Pen (with Counterpoint UK)

On 16 April, the UCL European Institute and London-based research and advisory group Counterpoint co-hosted an expert panel to debate the populist elements of the 2012 French presidential elections, and the implications of the likely strong showing of the far right Front National. The panel consisted of academics - Professor John Gaffney (Aston Centre for Europe), Professor Philippe Marlière (UCL) and Professor Jocelyn Evans (Salford University) - as well as journalists - Tony Barber (Europe editor of the Financial Times), Daniel Trilling (New Statesman) - and policy researchers - Jamie Bartlett (Head of the Violence and Extremism programme at Demos).

For a post-event analysis and online interviews, see our review page >>.