On Sunday, April 23, French voters will go to the polls to choose from 11 candidates in the first round of an extraordinary presidential election. The candidates from the two chief political parties have been trailing political newcomers and fringe party candidates. The top two vote-getters are expected to face each other in a runoff election on May 7.
How France’s Brand of Populism Differs from What Drove Brexit and Trump
An economist explains the French presidential election.
April 21, 2017, Updated April 21, 2017
Summary.
In an interview, Harvard Business School assistant professor Vincent Pons discusses the 2017 French presidential election and how economics are driving a rise of populism. The unusual race has seen political newcomers and fringe party candidates assume frontrunner status. Pons attributes that to a reaction of French voters against the two centrist parties that have ruled for decades and whose platforms have been converging on similar policies and support for the European Union. That, he argues, has left room for parties such as the National Front and its candidate Marine Le Pen to attract voters disenchanted by a sluggish economy, high national debt, and enduring high unemployment rates. However, Pons stops short of equating Le Pen’s rise with populist victories in the UK and the United States. France’s brand of populism and economic and electoral systems, he says, are different.