France Between Two Rounds: Analyzing the French Political Landscape

2022 marks the third time in the last twenty years that a candidate of the far right has advanced to the second round of presidential elections. Many expect this contest between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen to be closer than the last, noting the continued trend toward the extremes in French domestic politics and in Europe more generally. As France prepares to vote on April 24, this panel will will bring together experts on French society and the electoral process in order to analyze democratic transformations, electoral participation, the evolution of public opinion, the role of electoral promises and political polarization in France. This discussion will take place in English.

Panelists:

Florence Haegel is Professor of Political Science at Sciences Po. She has been the head of the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics since January 2017 Her research focuses on political parties, politicization, political socialisation and participation. Her work on political parties deals more specifically with the transformation of the French right (Haegel, Les droites en fusion, 2012).

Isabelle Guinaudeau is a CNRS political scientist at the Centre Emile Durkheim, Sciences Po Bordeaux. Her research is at the juncture between electoral studies, public opinion and public policy. She is involved in several collaborative research projects on agenda-setting (Comparative Agendas Project ; Projet Agendas France) and was the principal investigator of the ANR project Partipol, a large project on partisanship in policymaking.

Vincent Tiberj is a University Professor and Researcher at Sciences Po Bordeaux. He is a specialist in electoral sociology and political psychology. He is particularly interested in the analysis of electoral behavior in France, Europe, and the United States, as well as in the way “ordinary” citizens reason, social and ethnic inequalities, and xenophobic prejudices.