The French elections of 2022: Macron's half victory in a changing political landscape

Abstract

The French presidential and legislative elections of 2022 were not expected to be particularly exciting ones. Whereas the 2017 elections had upended the French political system, resulting in the election of a 39-year-old political novice to the French presidency and to his newly formed party winning the subsequent legislative elections, 2022 looked to be a repeat of that election. In spite of a tumultuous first term as president, marked by early protests by the Yellow Vests (Della Sudda and Reungoat, 2022) and by the Covid-19 pandemic, Macron was projected to repeat his 2017 feat. These expectations proved only half right. Macron did become the first president to secure re-election since the early 2000s, but he failed to secure a parliamentary majority. Precisely as to avoid this outcome, a 2000 Constitutional reform had shortened the presidential term and mandated parliamentary elections shortly after presidential ones – aligning previously staggered electoral calendars. Despite a favourable institutional context, Emmanuel Macron became the first President of the French Republic in the 21st century to form a minority government. In this contribution, we retrace the steps leading to this result. We first present the candidates in the presidential election and the campaign. We then discuss the results of the presidential and parliamentary elections. In the concluding sections, we consider how these results reflect a changed electoral sociology and analyse their implications.