So we have looked at the four front-runners, but who are the other contenders? The following candidates are not expected to figure in the second round of elections, but as Jean Marie Le Pen proved back in 2002, when he sensationally shocked the country by beating the-then Premier Minister Lionel Jospin to the second round, you never know!
Shefbase’s French correspondent Andrew Burgess profiles the remaining eight candidates (in alphabetical order):
Olivier Besancenot (Communist Revolutionary League [LCR])
Aged 28, Besancenot because the countries’ youngest ever presidential candidate when he ran in the 2002 elections. In these elections he won over 1.3 million votes (roughly 4.35% of the total votes cast), and won over 13% of the 18-25 vote, a figure much greater than that achieved by the socialist Lionel Jospin or the extreme-right Le Pen. With his campaign slogan of “Nos vies valent plus que leurs profits” (Our lives are worth more than their profits), Besancenot is widely expected to gain more votes than he did five years ago.
José Bové (Anti-globalist – no party)
Despite not belonging to a political party, 53-year old Bové, a farmer and a trade unionist, is perhaps best known for his anti-globalisation and anti-American protests, which have earned him four prison sentences (ranging from 44 days to 10 months). On 7 February 2007, the French Supreme Court of Appeal rejected an appeal against a four-month prison term he received for reducing a field of GM crop to cinders in July 2004, which means that should elected president he would make history – the first president to serve the country from within a prison cell!
Marie-George Buffet (Communist Party [PC])
The 57-year old former minister of youth affairs and sports is now at the helm of the Communist Party and is running in her first presidential election. If elected she wants to increase the national wage, begin the construction of 600,000 new social housing units and eliminate the tax ceiling for the wealthy. Political commentators have labelled her as the incarceration of the anti-liberal left.
Arlette Laguiller (Workers’ Fight [Lutte Ouvrière])
A presidential election veteran, Laguiller has taken part in every presidential election since 1974! She gained 5.3% of the vote in the presidential election of 1995 and increased this figure to 5.72% in 2002. Prior to announcing her candidature, she confirmed that this would be her last presidential election and if elected she wants to “replace the capitalist system which exploits people with a society which is free of any exploitation of its members”.
Frederic Nihous (Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Traditions Party)
A lawyer by trade, Nihous is passionate about the rural lifestyle. He is a chairman of the French Association of Pigeon-Hunters and is proud of shooting his first wild goose when he was just 16 years of age. Throughout the campaign, surveys have shown him to represent just 1% of the national vote and so it would be the biggest surprise of all if he was to make the second round of the election.
Gerard Schivardi (independent)
The once trade unionist and member of the socialist party (PS), Schivardi is currently the mayor of Mailhac, a small town in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France. He is best known for his anti-European stance and if elected he will implement the withdrawal of France from the European Union. He campaigns for “the collective interests of local communities” and defends public services in rural areas.
Philippe de Villiers (Movement for France [MPF])
Before he founded the “Mouvement pour la France”, a far-right party that stresses French sovereignty, he was a junior minister for culture in Jacques Chirac’s government of 1986. In 2005, he was one of the leading voices in the successful campaign to reject the European Constitution, and his has used his presidential campaign as a vehicle to warn against globalisation, the “Islamisation” of France and immigration.
Dominique Voynet (Green Party [les Verts])
A presidential candidate in 1995 (when she gained 3.32% of the vote), Voynet is running in her second presidential election. Now 48 years of age, she was environment minister in the Socialist-led coalition government of Lionel Jospin (1997-2001). Her campaign places the emphasis on France becoming more eco-friendly, and if elected she plans to make progress towards reduces France’s dependency on nuclear power and the banning of GM crops.
So will any of these candidates surprise the electorate and progress through to the second round of elections due to take place on the 6th May?
For more information about each candidate, you can watch a clip of each candidate in his or her official TV campaign slot by visiting this link: http://www.abenergy.f2s.com/andrew/blog/2007/04/meet-candidates.html (please note that all clips are spoken in French and are subtitled in French).
