Nearly six months ahead of France‘s presidential election, there are 28 potential candidates, 24 of whom have publicly announced their intention to stand in the first round of the election, which will take place on 18 April, while the candidacies of another four are more or less considered likely.

Under the current electoral system, the two candidates who finish first and second in the first round advance to the second round, which will take place on 2 May. At this stage, Marine Le Pen of the right-wing National Rally and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the radical-left France Unbowed party are seen as the frontrunners in the first round.

From the left, Raphaël Glucksmann of the Socialist Party, Fabien Roussel of the Communist Party and Marine Tondelier of the Ecologists have also publicly announced their intention to stand in the presidential election. Another four candidates from the left, as well as three from the far left, have also said they will contest the first round.

From the right, four people have publicly declared that they will stand as candidates, two of whom are affiliated with the Republican Party. On the right, in addition to Le Pen, there are two potential candidates, one of whom is Éric Zemmour, whose candidacy is considered likely.

Also considered likely are the candidacies of a former president of the French Republic, the Socialist François Hollande, as well as three former prime ministers: center-right Dominique de Villepin, who served as prime minister under President Jacques Chirac; fellow center-right politician Édouard Philippe, who served as prime minister under President Emmanuel Macron; and Gabriel Attal, who served as prime minister under Macron and is considered close to the Socialist Party. Finally, six candidates have an unclear political affiliation.

The oldest candidate is 75-year-old Jean-Luc Mélenchon, while the youngest is 28-year-old environmentalist Antoine Mikolajczak.

The deadline for submitting candidacies is 12 March 2027 at 6pm French time. For a candidacy to be approved, it must be accompanied by 500 signatures of support from elected officials in France. The final announcement will be made on 26 March by France’s Constitutional Council, which will publish the final official list of approved candidates.