The first round of the presidential election is in two months to the day, April 10. If Emmanuel Macron has already won the 500 sponsorships required to validate his candidacy, the president has still not officially declared himself. A rarity? “The answer is no”declares Jean Petaux, political scientist, who cites several antecedents of presidents re-elected under the Fifth Republic and declared a candidate late in life.
Jean Petaux bases himself on three examples: Jacques Chirac, candidate for his succession in 2002, declared himself on February 11, 69 days before the first round. “If Macron had followed the Chirac model, he should have presented himself on January 31,” comments the political scientist. Then come the cases of General de Gaulle, 31 days before the ballot in December 1965 and François Mitterrand, 33 days before the first round of the 1988 election. If these models served as an example for Emmanuel Macron, “He would appear on March 8, International Women’s Day”. A calendar not necessarily appropriate according to Jean Petaux, “given the fairly mixed record of the outgoing five-year term on violence against women”.