* SoundCloud French presidential elections of 2022 Why are there more than 30 candidates in the run? by Léa Serieys -- -- From Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon to Yannick Jadot, the French presidential elections which will take place in April 2022, certainly do not lack candidates. The last Presidents in office went through a pandemic, terrorist attacks, an economic crisis, social movements (eg -- -- We should be able to expect the number of candidates of the right and the ecologists to decrease since primary elections are going to be held in Autumn 2021 in order to determine which candidate will be -- in Autumn 2021 in order to determine which candidate will be representing their interests in the presidential elections of 2022. Some were expecting Christiane Taubira – Keeper of the Seals and -- -- Minister of Justice from 2012 to 2016, former MEP and MP — to run once again for the office as she already did in 2002 but she will not be a candidate for the French presidential elections as she declared on France Inter. She believes the left has enough candidates as it is. However, she also does not plan on standing by as she states “I am -- -- established by a judicial decision, and obtaining 500 sponsorships are among the few criteria required to run. Moreover, presidential elections in France are more about candidates than parties. Political families like the left or the right have subdivisions which are -- families like the left or the right have subdivisions which are particularly visible during periods of presidential elections. This factionalism explains why there are several candidates in one and the same political family. -- -- Industrial Renewal and Digital Affairs, stepped down from politics in 2016 after the primaries but he announced his candidacy for these elections in September 2021. Pierre Larrouturou is the budget rapporteur for the European Parliament and after hesitating between the Socialist Party and Europe Ecology – The Greens, he founded Nouvelle -- -- Regarding the incumbent French president Emmanuel Macron, even though he is not a declared candidate, his recent trip to Marseille lets us believe that he is indeed campaigning for the presidential elections. Ecologist -- -- Cap21 and the Independent Ecological Alliance. The first round of the primary elections for the ecologists were held from September 16 to September 19. Thus, Yannick Jadot arrived first with 27.70% followed closely by Sandrine Rousseau with 25.14%. The -- -- Five out of the eight candidates are participating to primary elections: Denis Payre, Eric Ciotti, Michel Barnier, Philippe Juvin – which are all members of The Republicans - and Valérie Pécresse. -- -- Radical Left and Far left Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s candidacy for these presidential elections is his third. He obtained 19.6% of the votes at the first round in 2017. As for Fabien Roussel, he is the head of the French Communist Party. -- -- Nathalie Arthaud has been advocating for the party Lutte Ouvrière since she was eighteen years old, and she has been a candidate for the elections since December 2020. The militant Marxist Anasse Kazib is a railwayman and a trade unionist. Like Jean-Luc Mélenchon, this is Philippe Poutou’s third candidacy for the French presidential -- -- railwayman and a trade unionist. Like Jean-Luc Mélenchon, this is Philippe Poutou’s third candidacy for the French presidential elections, and he is a member of the New Anticapitalist Party. Far right -- -- François Asselineau and Jean Lassale were already candidates in the presidential elections of 2017. Asselineau believes in “Frexit” meanwhile Lassale is known for his hunger strike in 2006 or also for singing the Occitan anthem in the National Assembly to contest an -- -- The candidates running are required to have 500 sponsorships of elected representative people (such as MPs, mayors, senators, councilmen and councilwomen, …). This rule has existed for the elections of the President of the Republic at universal direct suffrage since 1962 under the Article 3 of the Act of November 6, 1962. -- -- before the date of the first round”. In 1965, 1969 and 1974, for the three firsts presidential elections at direct universal suffrage, only 100 sponsorships were required to run. But 12 candidates ran for the presidency in 1974 and therefore a reform -- -- Act is criticized and often questioned as it has been less and less efficient over the years. For instance, 16 candidates ran for the presidential elections of 2002, which was the highest it had ever been, and 11 declared candidates ran for the office in 2017. Is a new record going to be achieved next year and if so, should this act be revisited -- -- The official list of candidates will be published by the Constitutional Council in March 2022. The candidates on the list will be able to participate to the first round of the French presidential elections of 2022 that will take place on April 10, 2022. However, if no candidate wins a majority of the vote at the first round, then a second round -- -- According to a study from Ipsos partnering with Sopra Steria, at fifteen months before the Presidential elections, 38% of the French people think that Emmanuel Macron would make a good president against 30% for Marine Le Pen and 29% for Xavier Bertrand. Of the respondents, 18% thought Paris’ mayor Anne -- -- Even though the number of candidates will decrease because of primaries this year for two of the political groups, we can still expect a high number of candidates for the 2022 presidential elections. Does it mean that the rule of 500 sponsorships could be modified once more? Most importantly, this high number of candidates shows that people are not -- -- vote for the candidate they believe in most anymore, they vote for the candidate they dislike the least. For instance, in the second round of the 2017 presidential elections which opposed Emmanuel Macron to Marine Le Pen, the rate of abstention was 25.44%. Moreover, this round also had the highest rate of blank votes under the V^th French Republic with -- -- Or is it confusing for the citizens to have these many candidates? Ultimately, should we expect a duel between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen as it was the case in the presidential elections of 2017? 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