How does the French presidential election work?
Two rounds of direct voting: the top two candidates from round one meet in a runoff.
Every French citizen with voting rights can vote directly for the president. There is no electoral college, and the national vote decides the result.
The first round can feature a dozen candidates. If one gets more than half the valid votes, they win outright. Otherwise the top two go through to a runoff two weeks later, and the one with more votes wins.
This system pushes parties to build wide coalitions between rounds, and it explains why voters often back a candidate in round one to express a preference, then choose between the finalists in round two.
Explore France's 2027 presidential election
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Official calendar: service-public.gouv.fr. This page is a general explainer and will be updated as the campaign develops.
Teaching and learning
Intended audience: Undergraduate students in French studies, history, political science and related fields; independent adult learners.
Suggested uses: Guided data interpretation, election comparison and evidence-based discussion.
After using this resource, learners should be able to:
- Interpret the election results, turnout figures and ballot statistics presented in this resource.
- Identify the election, round, geographic scope and denominator before comparing figures.
- Distinguish descriptive patterns in the data from claims about individual voting motives.
Use the objectives that correspond to the material available on this page. Collection pages provide entry points to individual resources; unfinished or unavailable material is not a completed learning activity.
Original materials © Dr. Amine Zidouh / French Politics, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 unless otherwise indicated. When sharing or reproducing covered material, credit Dr. Amine Zidouh and French Politics, link to the source and license, and identify changes. Images, protest signs, artworks and other third-party materials are excluded. See Rights, Credits & Educational Reuse for scope, attribution and the as-is disclaimer.