How the 2027 French presidential election works

The President of the Republic is elected for five years by direct universal suffrage: voters choose a person themselves, and the whole country, including overseas France and French citizens abroad, forms a single constituency. No one may serve more than two consecutive terms (Constitution, Article 6), so Emmanuel Macron, elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2022, cannot stand.

The next election will be held on Sunday 18 April 2027 for the first round and, if needed, on Sunday 2 May 2027 for the second. The Minister of the Interior presented these dates to the Council of Ministers on 1 July 2026. Here is how it works, from the filing of candidacies to the day after the second round, with the official figures from the last two elections. The election guide sums up the essentials on a single page.

Two rounds and an absolute majority

Article 7 of the Constitution sets the rule: the president is elected by an absolute majority of the votes cast ("suffrages exprimés"). If no candidate achieves it in the first round, a second round is held fourteen days later.

Two details matter. First, "votes cast" does not mean "people who voted": blank and spoilt ballots are counted separately and do not enter the calculation. An absolute majority therefore means more than half of the ballots that name a candidate. Second, only two candidates can stand in the second round: the two with the most votes in the first, after any withdrawal by better-placed candidates. Withdrawals must reach the Constitutional Council by midnight on the Thursday after the first round, which should be Thursday 22 April 2027. In the second round, whichever of the two wins more votes is elected.

In 2022 there were 35,132,947 votes cast in the first round. To be elected in that round, a candidate therefore needed at least 17,566,474 votes; the candidate who came first won 9,783,058, or 27.85%. In 2017 the leading candidate had won 24.01%. Both times, a second round was needed.

The 500 sponsorships

Not just anyone can stand. To appear on the official list, a candidate needs at least 500 sponsorships (the law calls them "présentations") from elected officials (Act No. 62-1292, Article 3):

• Who can sponsor: members of the National Assembly and the Senate, French members of the European Parliament, regional and departmental councillors, mayors (including deputy and district mayors), Paris councillors, members of the Corsican Assembly and of the overseas assemblies, members of the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad and presidents of groupings of municipalities, among others.
• A geographical spread: sponsors must be elected in at least 30 different departments or overseas authorities, with no more than a tenth of them (50 for 500 sponsorships) from the same department or authority.
• A public and final commitment: sponsorships are sent by post to the Constitutional Council, and once sent they cannot be withdrawn. The Council publishes the names and offices of sponsors at least twice a week while they are being collected.
• Strict deadlines: collection opens the day after the decree calling the election is published and closes at 6 pm on the sixth Friday before the first round, which should be Friday 12 March 2027. The Council checks the sponsorships and draws up the official list, due to be published in the Official Journal on Tuesday 16 March 2027.

Each candidate must also file a declaration of assets and a declaration of interests and activities; the asset declarations are made public at least fifteen days before the first round. Campaign spending is capped: the law sets €13.7 million per candidate and €18.3 million for each of the two candidates in the second round, amounts multiplied by a coefficient of 1.23 since 2009, which gave €16.851 million and €22.509 million in 2022. The state reimburses part of this spending: 4.75% of the cap, or 47.5% for candidates who win more than 5% of the votes cast in the first round.

From the publication of the list, radio and television must treat the candidates fairly; during the official campaign, they must give them equal airtime, under the supervision of Arcom, the media regulator.

The 2027 timetable: what is set and what is not yet

As of 19 October 2026, only the dates of the two rounds have been announced. The decree calling the election, which officially starts the process, has not yet been published: the law requires it to be published at least ten weeks before the first round, so by 7 February 2027 at the latest. The dates marked "expected" below are calculated from the legislation and will be confirmed by that decree.

In each round, from 00:00 on Saturday, all electoral campaigning is banned, online included (Electoral Code, Article L49), as is publishing or commenting on any election poll (Act No. 77-808, Article 11). No result, not even a partial one, may be published before the last polling stations in metropolitan France close at 8 pm on Sunday (Article L52-2).

Who votes and how to register

Voters are French citizens who are 18 by the day before the election, enjoy their civil and political rights and are registered on an electoral roll, in France or at a consulate. Citizens of other European Union countries living in France do not vote in the presidential election: they can vote only in European and municipal elections.

Most voters are registered automatically: at 18 if they completed their citizenship census ("recensement citoyen"), and when they acquire French nationality. However, moving house does not register you automatically: you need to register in your new municipality. To vote in 2027, you must register by Friday 12 March 2027, online at service-public.fr or at your town hall. The same website lets you check your registration and your polling station.

On election day, polling stations are open from 8 am to 7 pm; the prefect can delay closing in some municipalities, but not beyond 8 pm, and in practice large cities close at 8 pm.

Voting by proxy and from abroad

If you cannot get to your polling station, another voter can vote on your behalf. You choose them freely, even if they are registered in another municipality: they vote for you at your polling station. You do not have to give a reason. You apply online through the Maprocuration service and then confirm your identity at a police station or gendarmerie, or online without going anywhere if you have a certified France Identité digital ID; the paper form is still available. A proxy can be valid for one election or for up to one year. Each proxy holder can hold only one proxy made in France. It is best to apply early, so that it reaches the town hall in time.

French citizens living abroad can register on the consular electoral roll and vote in person at their embassy or consulate; in the Americas they vote on the Saturday. They can also vote by proxy, made at the consulate or online with France Identité; for voters on a consular roll, it can be valid for up to three years. In the presidential election you can vote neither online nor by post.

The 2017 and 2022 results

The Constitutional Council ensures that the election is properly conducted, examines complaints and proclaims the official results (Constitution, Article 58). In 2017 and 2022 it proclaimed them three days after each round. The percentages below are shares of the votes cast; we calculated them from the official vote counts.

First round, 23 April 2017 (registered voters: 47,582,183; turnout: 77.77%; votes cast: 36,054,394)

Second round, 7 May 2017 (registered voters: 47,568,693; turnout: 74.56%; votes cast: 31,381,603): Emmanuel Macron 20,743,128 votes (66.10%), Marine Le Pen 10,638,475 votes (33.90%).

First round, 10 April 2022 (registered voters: 48,747,876; turnout: 73.69%; votes cast: 35,132,947)

Second round, 24 April 2022 (registered voters: 48,752,339; turnout: 71.99%; votes cast: 32,057,325): Emmanuel Macron 18,768,639 votes (58.55%), Marine Le Pen 13,288,686 votes (41.45%).

Blank votes weigh more in the second round, when only two candidates are left. In 2022 there were 543,609 in the first round and 2,233,904 in the second, or 1.51% and then 6.37% of those who voted; in 2017, 659,997 and then 3,021,499, or 1.78% and then 8.52% (our calculation from the Constitutional Council’s decisions). They are counted and published, but they are not part of the votes cast: each candidate’s percentage is calculated without them.

After the second round

Once the results have been proclaimed, the new president takes office at the end of the current term, in May 2027, and appoints the Prime Minister (Constitution, Article 8). But what the president can do will also depend on the National Assembly, which passes laws and can bring down the government.

The current Assembly was elected in June and July 2024, after a dissolution; unless it is dissolved again, its term runs until 2029. So in 2027 there will be no parliamentary election automatically tied to the presidential one, as there was in June 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2022, when the two timetables coincided. The new president will, however, be able to dissolve the Assembly (Article 12): parliamentary elections are then held no less than twenty and no more than forty days after the dissolution, and there can be no further dissolution in the year after those elections. That decision will be the president’s.

What this means for the test

Until the official list is published, the test includes the candidates who have declared or been nominated by their party and who meet the criterion explained in the methodology; there are 11 today, and the list will change. Once the official list is published, the test will include all the official candidates, and only them. After the first round, it will keep only the two candidates in the second.

The test does not take into account the majority each candidate would have in the National Assembly: it compares your answers with their positions, issue by issue. How the calculation works is explained in the analysis How your match with the candidates is calculated, and each candidate’s positions, with their sources, are on the candidates’ pages.