2022 French presidential election in the context of "2022 French legislative election"

The Republicans (French: Les Républicains [le ʁepyblikɛ̃], LR) is a liberal-conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed in 2015 as the refoundation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been established in 2002 under the leadership of the then-president of France, Jacques Chirac. LR is a member of the Centrist Democrat International and the European People's Party, and sits in the European People's Party Group in the European Parliament.

The UMP used to be one of the two major political parties in the Fifth Republic, along with the centre-left Socialist Party, before being eclipsed by the National Rally and Renaissance. The LR candidate in the 2017 presidential election, former Prime Minister François Fillon, placed third in the first round, with 20.0% of the vote. Following the 2017 legislative election, LR became the second-largest party in the National Assembly, behind President Emmanuel Macron's La République En Marche! party (later renamed Renaissance). After a disappointing result in the 2019 European Parliament election, party leader Laurent Wauquiez resigned. He was replaced by Christian Jacob, who remained in office until after the 2022 legislative election, which saw LR lose half of its seats, although it became the kingmaker in a hung parliament. One month before, in the 2022 presidential election, LR nominee Valérie Pécresse placed fifth with 4.7% of the vote. Despite those setbacks, LR was still the largest party in the Senate and headed a plurality of regions of France. Éric Ciotti became president of LR after the 2022 leadership election. In the run-up of the 2024 French legislative election Ciotti came out in favour of an electoral alliance with National Rally. This would have reversed the historic cordon sanitaire that the party had regarding the group. Ciotti was soon removed from his position, which led to a leadership crisis. In May 2025, Bruno Retailleau was elected president of the party.

Renaissance (RE) is a political party in France that is typically described as liberal and centrist or centre-right. The party was originally known as En Marche ! (EM) and later La République En Marche ! (transl. The Republic on the Move, LREM, LaREM or REM), before adopting its current name in September 2022. RE is the leading force of the centrist Ensemble coalition, coalesced around Emmanuel Macron's original presidential majority.

The party was established on 6 April 2016 by Macron, a former Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, who was later elected president in the 2017 presidential election with 66.1% of the second-round vote. Subsequently, the party ran candidates in the 2017 legislative election, including dissidents from the Socialist Party (PS) and the Republicans (LR), as well as minor parties, winning an absolute majority in the National Assembly. Macron was re-elected in the 2022 presidential election, but the party lost its absolute majority in the 2022 legislative election.

Renaissance (RE) is a political party in France that is typically described as liberal and centrist or centre-right. The party was originally known as En Marche ! (EM) and later La République En Marche ! (transl. The Republic on the Move), LREM, LaREM or REM), before adopting its current name in September 2022. RE is the leading force of the centrist Ensemble coalition, coalesced around Emmanuel Macron's original presidential majority.

The party was established on 6 April 2016 by Macron, a former Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, who was later elected president in the 2017 presidential election with 66.1% of the second-round vote. Subsequently, the party ran candidates in the 2017 legislative election, including dissidents from the Socialist Party (PS) and the Republicans (LR), as well as minor parties, winning an absolute majority in the National Assembly. Macron was re-elected in the 2022 presidential election, but the party lost its absolute majority in the 2022 legislative election.

Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Mélenchon (French: [ʒɑ̃lyk melɑ̃ʃɔ̃] ; born 19 August 1951) is a French politician who has been the de facto leader of the movement La France Insoumise (LFI) since it was established in 2016. He was the deputy in the National Assembly for the 4th constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône from 2017 to 2022 and led the La France Insoumise group in the National Assembly from 2017 to 2021. Mélenchon was previously elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2009 and reelected in 2014. He has run for President of France three times, in 2012, 2017 and 2022. In 2022, he came within 1.2 percentage points of reaching the second round in France's two-round voting system.

After joining the Socialist Party (PS) in 1976, Mélenchon was successively elected a municipal councillor of Massy (1983) and general councillor of Essonne (1985). In 1986, he entered the Senate, to which he was reelected in 1995 and 2004. He also served as Minister for Vocational Education between 2000 and 2002 under Minister of National Education Jack Lang in the cohabitation government of Lionel Jospin. He was part of the left-wing of the PS until the Reims Congress of November 2008, when he left the party to found the Left Party with Marc Dolez, a member of the National Assembly. Mélenchon first served as party president before becoming party co-president alongside Martine Billard, a position he held until 2014. As co-president of the Left Party, he joined the electoral coalition of the Left Front before the 2009 European Parliament election in France; he was elected as a MEP in the South-West France constituency and reelected in 2014. He became the Left Front's candidate in the 2012 French presidential election, in which he came in fourth, receiving 11.1% of the first-round vote.

Éric Ciotti (French: [eʁik sjɔti] or [eʁik tʃɔti] , Italian: [ˈtʃɔtti]; born 28 September 1965) is a French politician who led The Republicans (LR) from 2022 to 2024. He has represented Alpes-Maritimes's 1st constituency in the National Assembly since the 2007 legislative election. Once a member of The Republicans' right-wing, he was seeking to distance the party from Emmanuel Macron's presidency. He left The Republicans in 2024, and is now the leader of the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party and parliamentary group.

Ciotti briefly served as First Deputy Mayor of Nice under Mayor Christian Estrosi in 2008, before he assumed the presidency of the Departmental Council of Alpes-Maritimes from 2008 to 2017. He sought the party's nomination for the 2022 presidential election at its 2021 congress; he unexpectedly placed first in the first round of voting, but was defeated by centre-right candidate Valérie Pécresse in the second round. In December 2022, following Pécresse's historic loss in the presidential election, he was elected president of The Republicans, placing first in the first round and winning the second round against Senator Bruno Retailleau, with whom he has worked closely since he took office as leader.

Christiane Marie Taubira (French: [kʁistjan maʁi tobiʁa]; born 2 February 1952) is a French politician who served as Minister of Justice of France in the governments of Prime Ministers Jean-Marc Ayrault and Manuel Valls under President François Hollande from 2012 until 2016. She was a member of the National Assembly of France for French Guiana from 1993 to 2012 and member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999.

She won the 2022 French People's Primary, winning the right to stand as a "unity left" candidate in the 2022 French presidential election. It was her second bid after the 2002 French presidential election where she failed to qualify to the second round after garnering only 2.32% of the votes in the first round. She dropped out of the race on 2 March 2022 after failing to get enough support to qualify.

Valérie Anne Émilie Pécresse (French pronunciation: [valeʁi pekʁɛs] ; née Roux [ʁu] ; 14 July 1967) is a French politician who has been the President of the Regional Council of Île-de-France since 2015. A member of The Republicans, she previously served as Minister of Higher Education and Research from 2007 to 2011 and Minister of the Budget and Government Spokeswoman from 2011 to 2012 under Prime Minister François Fillon. Pécresse represented the 2nd constituency of Yvelines in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2007 and again from 2012 until 2016.

Pécresse was voted as the Republicans' nominee for the 2022 French presidential election, defeating Éric Ciotti in the party primary. She came fifth in the election with 4.8% of the vote, the worst result in the history of her party or its Gaullist predecessors.