The Weekly Dispatch is your weekly summary of the major events taking place in French politics, published on Sundays in order to give you the perfect way to catch up with French news and events. After a two week break due to work and health related issues, we’re back!

Polling update

The arrival of Pécresse as the candidate for Les Républicains has shaken things up a little on the right, with right-wing politicians beginning to look like a serious challenger in the first round, earning 17% in the latest poll by OpinionWay for Les Echos. This has put her ahead of Marine Le Pen (16%) and Eric Zemmour (12%).

While some would say this should worry incumbent President Emmanuel Macron (24%), the reality is that he continues to sit high above the other candidates and holds a 7% lead over the nearest challenger.

Far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon (9%) continues to run an unpopular campaign, finding himself only just ahead of Green candidate Yannick Jadot (8%), while the socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo (4%) finds herself under the pressure of a left-wing coalition primary, and another challenger from the Socialist party.

We have our candidates

With Eric Zemmour’s official candidate announcement on Tuesday 30 November, and Valérie Pécresse winning the Les Républicains, we now have our full list of candidates for the 2022 French Presidential Election, and this is where things start to get interesting.

From the Far-left to the far-right, these are the main candidates for the 2022 French Presidential ELection

• Fabien Roussel - Parti Communiste Français

• Jean-Luc Mélenchon - La France Insoumise

• Arnaud Montebourg - L'Engagement

• Yannick Jadot - Europe Écologie

• Anne Hidalgo - Socialist Party

• Emmanuel Macron - La République en Marche!

• Valérie Pécresse - Les Républicains

• Nicolas Dupont-Aignan - Debout la France

• Marine Le Pen - National Rally

• Éric Zemmour - Reconquête

Or do we?

Recent discussions between the left-wing presidential candidates, who are all languishing in the sub-10% region in polls, with a goal of seeing if they can form a ‘Union of the Left’ have continued to take place. While they are currently focused between the Socialists and the Greens, as well as some factions of La France Insoumise, and the French communist party, a new player appears to have entered the field.

In what has shocked many, one name has appeared in the ring as a potential unity candidate who could take on Emmanuel Macron, Les Républicains, and the far-right: Christiane Taubira.

The former Minister of Justice from 2012 until 2016, and a former member of the European Parliament, Taubira is a leading actor on the French left and is now for having been one of the figureheads of the 2001 law that recognises the slave trade as a crime against humanity.

However, those who are getting excited by a potential messiah who could save the left from the infighting that has plagued it since the last primary may be disappointed, with many claiming that this candidacy “ is basically the symptom of a left which does not manage to pull out of the game " and is indicative of a left-wing union that has start off very badly, and may not even get off of the ground.

And while some would even point at the polls above and say that a left-union could win up to 25% of the vote according to current polls, they may be very surprised by the way some electors on the left would react to any alliance with actors such as Mélenchon.

“Fight amongst yourselves and leave me alone”

And Jean-Luc doesn’t seem very keen for them to vote for him anyway.

Reacting to the calls for unity on the left, and the potential leadership of Christiane Taubira, Mélenchon isn’t buying into the idea of this Union, and unequivocally shut down participation from his side.

“ There’s an election in three months, do you think we have time to hold a Parti Socialist Congress before? ” he asked, incredulous, lambasting the “old left” for putting itself in a “situation of ridicule” and refusing to comment past this point, claiming that it wasn’t “up to him” to add to it.

Reminding everybody about how hard he has been working with his La France Insoumise colleagues, he made the case for how ‘deserving’ he was of the confidence of the citizens. Unfortunately, with a reputation for violent rhetoric and a campaign polling at c. 9%, he still has a long way to go.