The presidential elections in France, 2022. the year showed a new fragmentation of the country’s political scene. In the second round, in terms of the number of votes, the gap between Macron and Le Pen was twice as small as it was five years ago. Similarly, in the first round, the gap between Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidate of the radical left movement, was small, while in fourth place we had Eric Zemour, candidate of the far right who attracted nearly two and a half million votes by insisting that Le Pen was not right-wing enough. The traditional political parties, Les Républicains and the Socialist Party, which dominated the political life of the Fifth Republic until 2017, together won fewer votes than Eric Zemour, who came in fourth. In addition, the Green Party shows some stability in recent years, and the Communists ran again as independents and gained more than 800,000 votes. Although Macron still has a large advantage over Le Pen in the second round, and his re-election is the first victorious re-election since Jacques Chirac in 2002, however, long-term trends indicate that the French political landscape is now composed of three blocs: the far right, the far center and the increasingly radicalized left. In this context, the parliamentary elections, which will also be held in two rounds, on the 12th and 19th, could produce a historic result and reverse the current political trends not only in France, but throughout Europe. According to the polls, the left-wing coalition led by Mélenchon, and including the communists, socialists and greens, has a real chance of winning these elections against Macron’s “Ensemble” coalition, and because of the specificity of the French political system, even of conquering an absolute majority in the lower house of parliament.

On the occasion of this election, Ivica Mladenović, a researcher attached to the Institute, will hold a lecture during which the interested public will be informed about the functioning of French politics, especially in light of the political system of the Fifth Republic. He will explain the evolution of trends in French politics in recent years, predictions about this future evolution and discuss the implications that the presidential and parliamentary elections of the year 2022. will have for the Fifth Republic.