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2022 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

What changes when the official presidential campaign begins in France?

The French presidential campaign only officially begins on Monday, but many feel it has already been going on for months. We explain what actually changes.

What changes when the official presidential campaign begins in France?
Election boards go up as the campaign officially begins in France. Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP

Monday 28th March marks the official beginning of presidential campaign season in France. 

This may come as a surprise for those of you feel like you have been reading about the election for months on end. But the official start to the campaign always falls two Mondays before the first-round vote. 

A number of important steps have already taken place in the build up to the election. The number of candidates running has already been cut down to 12 after a number of figures failed to gather enough parrainages – or signatures of support. 

So what actually changes on Monday? 

For most people, the official beginning of the campaign makes no difference to their lives. But there are some changes you should be aware of. 

  • Airtime 

The key change over this period is to do with the division of airtime between different candidates in the media. 

From January 1st, a sort of pre-electoral period, TV and radio stations had to allocate time to candidates or their backers in accordance with the candidate’s popularity (measured by polls) and previous electoral performance. 

From March 28th however, all candidates – whether French President Emmanuel Macron who is polling at 28 percent or socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo on 2 percent – are required to receive equal airtime. 

  • Candidates send letters 

Each of the candidates will send letters to voters, known as professions de foi (professions of faith), in a bid to sell themselves as the best option. The sending of theses letters is funded by public money. 

La Croix reported that about 100 million such letters are sent out in total across the two rounds of a typical French presidential election. The newspaper estimated that the cost of sending these letters in 2022 would be about €64.5 million. 

  • Election posters go up 

The most striking thing about the official start of the campaign season is the appearance of election posters all over the place, and the election boards go up outside public buildings.

As with broadcasting rules, each candidate is given equal amounts of space – so this time boards go up in sets of 12. Posters go up outside polling stations, which include town halls, schools and gyms.

Putting up posters on non-public buildings is possible but is strictly regulated

  • Videos 

Each of the 12 presidential candidates has made a clip for broadcast on public TV. 

At least part of the cost of these clips is covered by the state, but the variation in quality between them indicates that some kind of private finance is also used

The videos themselves are limited in duration and must be broadcast and during prime time. 

How long will the election period last? 

The first official campaign season will end on April 8th in French overseas territories including Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique, Saint-Barthélémy, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Saint-Martin and French Polynesia. People living in these areas vote in the first round on April 9th. 

But for mainland France and other overseas territories, the campaign season draws to a close on April 9th, before the first-round vote the following day. The closing of the official campaign means that broadcasters cannot show electoral propaganda from midnight on April 8th. 

After the first round of voting, the official campaign season will begin again, on April 15th – lasting until April 22nd if you live in a far-flung overseas territory or April 23rd if you live in France. 

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POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

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