Élection présidentielle française de 2012

One of the things that I am enjoying about learning la langue français is that I am also learning about French culture and politics. Apprendre une nouvelle langue c'est aussi apprendre la culture du pays.

One of the most important things happening en France maintenant est l'élection présidentielle de 2012. En écoutant la radio française (j'écoute souvent France Info), I am learning a lot about the way les Français elect their presidents and who the main candidates are.

En France, they use a two-round system for electing le président. 

C'était aujourd'hui le premier tour des élections présidentielles en France and that is what they are reporting on this evening via France Info.

The results of le premier tour are:

1. François Hollande (27,95%) - Parti socialiste
2. Nicolas Sarkozy - current French president (26,86%) - L'union pour un mouvement populaire
3. Marine Le Pen (19,06%) - Front national
4. Jean-Luc Mélenchon (10,86%) - Parti de gauche

So, the first round ended with the selection of Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande as second round participants, as neither of them had acquired a majority in the first round.

« Le candidat élu n'est élu qu'à la majorité absolue. Ainsi si aucun des candidats n’obtient plus de 50 % des suffrages exprimés au premier tour, les deux candidats en tête se retrouveront dans un second tour, deux semaines après le premier. Le second tour n'est donc pas obligatoire et peut ne pas avoir lieu même si cela n'a jamais été le cas au cours de la Cinquième République. Si un second tour est nécessaire, il se déroulera le dimanche 6 mai 2012 » - Wikipedia

Interestingly, we are also having notre élections présidentielles cette année dans les États-Unis, and what I see as a significant cultural/political difference right off the bat is the variety of parties that were represented in le premier tour as compared to the basic two-party system we have here in the US. Yes, there are other minor parties here in the US (like the Greens and the Libertarians), but mostly the two dominant parties, Democrats and Republicans, are the ones that get reported on in the mainstream media and that get a significant number of electoral votes.

Although I am still learning, it does seem like the French public is more engaged politically and that there is a wider range of political philosophies represented within the political arena.

Reading articles and listening to the radio is a great way to build a good vocabulary for understanding presidential politics, and a great way to learn about how another culture chooses to govern themselves.

Here is what the winner of le premier tour, François Hollande (PS), had to say.


Did he say 80% of the French people voted? Wow! That's quite a nice turnout. Voter turnout in the US in 2008, when Barack Obama was elected president, was about 63% - and that was high for the US.