France will hold the first round of its next presidential election on 18 April 2027, with the run-off scheduled for 2 May, government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon confirmed following Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.
The decisive second round will take place just 11 days before President Emmanuel Macron’s second term expires on 13 May. Constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term, Macron leaves behind a fragmented field that includes former prime ministers Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal, as well as hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon. On the right, National Rally president Jordan Bardella is increasingly emerging as the candidate to beat.
The election timetable, however, was unveiled as fresh legal scrutiny once again closed in on the National Rally. Early on Tuesday, investigators searched the offices and private homes of communications providers that had worked with the party. The raids form part of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office investigation into the former Identity and Democracy group’s alleged misuse of European Parliament funds between 2019 and 2024.
The searches targeted service providers across France, Belgium, Italy, and Spain. Bardella has not been charged in the case. The broader investigation concerns allegations that €4.33 million was improperly spent, including €3.6 million in contracts allegedly awarded to politically connected companies without adequate competition.
Bardella directly linked the timing of the raids to the presidential election. ‘As always, judicial proceedings herald the electoral calendar,’ he wrote on X, adding: ‘We have nothing to reproach ourselves for, and we will prove it.’
He also referred to a separate complaint concerning a parliamentary assistant position he held for several months in 2015. Anticor—a French anti-corruption association, accused by conservatives of selectively targeting certain, mainly right-wing political figures—alleges that the employment was fictitious and that documents were subsequently created to justify it. Bardella and the RN reject the allegations.
European prosecutors are separately examining whether parliamentary funds improperly covered media training he received while serving as an MEP.
With yet another investigation involving the RN, many critics of the European establishment argue that courts and prosecutors are becoming involved in the French electoral process. Marine Le Pen, who was the party’s presidential candidate in three elections, is already subject to an immediately enforceable five-year ban on standing for office following her 2025 embezzlement conviction. Le Pen denies any wrongdoing, has described the proceedings as politically motivated, and has appealed the verdict. The Paris Court of Appeal is due to rule on 7 July. Unless it overturns the ban, Bardella is expected to become the RN’s presidential candidate.
The right-wing firebrand would begin the campaign as the clear frontrunner. A late-June Ifop survey placed him as high as 37 per cent in first-round scenarios, well ahead of every mainstream rival. An earlier Odoxa poll went further, finding that he would defeat every tested opponent in the second round, including Philippe, by 53 to 47 per cent.
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