France Sets Its Presidential Election for April 2027 as Macron's Final Term Winds Down

France now has a date for a contest that could reshape the country — and unsettle Europe.

The date

The election will be held in two rounds, with the first on April 18, 2027, and a runoff on May 2 if no candidate wins an outright majority, which a crowded field makes all but certain, France 24 reported. The timing follows from the French constitution, which requires the first round to fall shortly before the sitting president's term expires; Macron's mandate ends in mid-May 2027.

Why Macron isn't on the ballot

Macron, first elected in 2017 and reelected in 2022, cannot run again: France bars a president from serving more than two consecutive terms. He has said he intends to serve out his mandate, but his authority has been diminished since his centrist alliance lost its majority in the National Assembly in 2024, leaving France through a churn of governments and an unstable parliament.

The field

The race's biggest unknown is the far right. Marine Le Pen, the longtime National Rally leader and three-time candidate, was convicted of embezzlement of European Parliament funds in 2025 and barred from holding office, a ruling she is appealing; her eligibility to run in 2027 hinges on that appeal. In the meantime the party has put forward her 29-year-old protégé, Jordan Bardella, who leads early polls with roughly a third of first-round support. The rest of the field is unusually crowded: the former prime minister Édouard Philippe has declared and polls second; the interior minister Bruno Retailleau carries the traditional right; Macron's camp looks to former prime minister Gabriel Attal; and on the left, the veteran Jean-Luc Mélenchon is running again while Socialists, Greens and others weigh a unity candidate.

The stakes

The vote arrives at a fragile moment. France has cycled through prime ministers since 2024 with no bloc commanding a majority, and a victory by the National Rally — which has never held the presidency — would be a historic turn with ripple effects across the European Union, where France anchors the bloc alongside Germany. The first round is almost certain to send two candidates to a runoff; with Le Pen's eligibility unresolved and Bardella still building a national profile, the shape of that final contest remains genuinely open. Under French rules, candidates must still gather 500 sponsoring signatures from elected officials to qualify — a filter that will narrow the field in the months ahead.