Electoral Panorama / Panorama Electoral

France will be holding a presidential election next year, on April 22, 2007. Presidential election results since 1965 are now available in Part I of Presidential Elections in France.

The presidential election in France may still be five months away, but the race for the Élysée Palace is already beginning to take shape. In a primary held last Thursday, Socialist Party members overwhelmingly chose Poitou-Charentes regional president Ségolène Royal as their party's presidential candidate. Ms. Royal, a former cabinet minister who is also a member of the National Assembly, is the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major party in France, and could become the country's first-ever female head of state.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy (the son of a Hungarian immigrant), who is also the leader of the ruling Gaullist, right-of-center Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) remains his party's likely presidential nominee - so long as outgoing President Jacques Chirac decides not to run for a third term. Chirac, who turns 74 later this month, has yet to indicate whether or not he will stand for re-election.