Face-off

When Emmanuel Macron decided to run for French president, the consensus among politicians and pundits was that he stood no chance. A 39-year-old former banker who served under the deeply unpopular François Hollande, a man with no party behind him and claiming to be neither on the right or on the left could never sit in the Elysée Palace, it was said. But today, with less than two months to go before the first round, the maverick is firmly in the race and could even clinch France's top job.

Marine Le Pen has finally broken a glass ceiling - not in France, but in Lebanon. For the first time, the French far-right leader was hosted by a foreign sitting president and head of government. She hopes it will boost her international credentials and presidential bid. In the meantime, with less than two months to go before round one of the elections, the left is still struggling to figure out how many candidates it will field - and the clock is ticking.

With just over two months to go before the first round of France's presidential election, conservative candidate François Fillon is mired in a scandal over the hiring of his wife and children as parliamentary aides. The former frontrunner is now edged in opinion polls by far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist newcomer Emmanuel Macron. As Fillon battles to keep his run alive, he is also warning that if he is forced out, many of his sympathisers could throw their support behind Le Pen.

With his poll ratings in freefall amid claims he might have created a fake job for his wife, French conservative candidate François Fillon held a defiant press conference this week to try to save his presidential bid. But will he be able to hold on until the elections? And has the scandal damaged his chances of victory?

The stage is finally set. Less than three months before the French presidential election, all the candidates are now known after the Socialists chose Benoit Hamon as their flag-bearer. It is certainly a wide-open race. The favourite, conservative candidate François Fillon, is mired in controversy over allegations his wife held a fictitious job, while his two main rivals, far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist newcomer Emmanuel Macron, are gearing up to fully launch their campaigns.

A few months ago, France's conservatives held a primary to designate their presidential candidate and an outsider, François Fillon, won handily. This week, the left is voting to choose its presidential hopeful and the favourite after the first round, Benoit Hamon, is a man who was not on the radar just a few weeks ago. This means that aside from far-right leader Marine Le Pen, all the favourites to win this spring's elections are out of contention. A most unusual election season is upon us.

On January 22, the French left is holding the first round of a primary to designate its candidate for the presidential election. But as the contenders hold rallies across the country, the winner is slated to be only a bit player in this April's election. Other rivals are well ahead in the polls: on the right and the far-right, but also on the left, where the future Socialist candidate is lagging behind far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and rising star Emmanuel Macron.

"I am a Gaullist and I am a Christian". This is how the conservative candidate for France's presidential election, François Fillon, defines himself. By wearing his religion on his sleeve, the favourite for next May's election is entering uncharted territory for the deeply secular French political class. Also on the agenda this week: the first of three debates between the candidates for the Socialist primary which will designate their presidential hopeful.

The sprint has already begun. In just three weeks' time, France’s Socialists will square off in round one of the primary to designate their candidate for the presidential election this spring. Seven hopefuls are on the starting line with no clear favourite emerging. But the winner will face a daunting task, with far-right and conservative candidates far better positioned to win the presidency.

In a little over four months, the mother of all elections in France - the presidential election - will take place. One thing is for sure: a new president will be voted in. François Hollande has announced he will not run for re-election and his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy is also out of contention. But who will sit in the Elysée Palace next May remains anyone's guess. For our last show of the year, we take stock of the political situation in France and look ahead to the presidential race.

After French President François Hollande's shock announcement that he will not run for re-election, the battle on the left has begun in earnest. A Socialist primary election is scheduled for the end of January but its winner will have to contend with two emerging rivals, Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the far-left and Emmanuel Macron in the centre. This division bodes ill for the left in the presidential election, especially when compared to the unity on the right and the far-right.

After the surprise election of François Fillon as the conservative candidate for next year's French presidential elections, there was another surprise last Thursday with the shock announcement by François Hollande that he would not be seeking a second term. A few days later, his Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced that he would run for the Socialist presidential nomination in January. But can Valls unite a divided party?

François Fillon is the new uncontested leader of the conservatives in France. After his resounding win in the primaries, the former prime minister is already training his sights on a bigger prize: the presidential palace. His most likely opponent will be the far-right leader Marine Le Pen. This is all the more likely because the ruling Socialists are not only deeply unpopular but also deeply divided - so much so that the president and prime minister locked horns in public this week.

In a stunning upset, François Fillon, the former prime minister who was considered out of contention just two weeks ago, not only won, but won a resounding victory in the first round of France's conservative primary on Sunday. He will face off against the man who was the supposed favourite, Alain Juppé. Fillon's triumph also means that the man under whom he served as prime minister, former president Nicolas Sarkozy, is out of the race - and, at least for a while - out of politics.

Donald Trump's election has shocked the world and the aftershocks have crossed the Atlantic, landing smack in the middle of the French presidential campaign. Could a populist candidate such as far-right leader Marine Le Pen also carry the day next May, or will what happened in the US stay in the US? This question will be on French voters' minds on Sunday as they cast their ballots in the first round of the conservative party's primaries.

Next year's presidential election in France will be unusual in many ways: In addition to the strong probability that far-right leader Marine Le Pen will qualify for the decisive second round, it is also likely that a socialist candidate –for the first time during the Fifth Republic – will be beaten by a leftist alternative. Two serious contenders seem to be emerging: Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the far left, and former economy minister Emmanuel Macron on the center-left.

In France, the conservative party's primary to designate its candidate for next year's presidential election is looming. If the polls are correct, the winner could well be France's next president. While former PM Alain Juppé is comfortably ahead, his main challenger, former president Nicolas Sarkozy, is not going down without a fight. The atmosphere is increasingly tense as the seven candidates prepare to square off this week in the second of three televised debates.

The dismantling of the so-called Calais "Jungle" is well under way. After years of hesitation and controversy, the French government decided that the ramshackle camp, where 6,000 to 8,000 migrants were living in rough conditions, had to go. The migrants are being relocated to dozens of spots across France. Also this week, President François Hollande's dreadful polling figures are prompting wild speculation that he should not run for re-election and should let his prime minister run instead.

This week, President François Hollande paid a highly controversial visit to Florange, a struggling steel factory in eastern France that has become a symbol of political promises gone awry. Both Hollande and his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy stand accused by workers and some unions of betraying repeated promises to save jobs. As they both train their sights on next year's presidential election, they will need to overcome their track record on this issue.

This week, the candidates for France's conservative primary will square off in the first of three debates. With the election a little over a month away, seven politicians are trying to show their mettle, but the real battle will be a duel between former president Nicolas Sarkozy and former prime minister Alain Juppé.

For the first time in French history, a sitting president is likely to seek re-election through a primary contest. If the plan laid out this weekend by the Socialist Party is implemented, François Hollande will face off against several rivals to be the party's candidate for next year's presidential elections. There is actually a good chance he could be eliminated, given his abysmal poll numbers. He already has one declared adversary, his former Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg.

For years, migrants trying to make their way from France across the Channel to the UK have been stuck in the Calais "jungle" migrant camp, often living in squalid conditions. And for years, politicians have promised to deal with the situation, to no avail. Now, with the French presidential campaign in sight, Calais has seen a flurry of visits in recent days, first and foremost by President Hollande and then by his predecessor - and possibly also his successor - Nicolas Sarkozy.

After months of near-silence, the leader of France's National Front party Marine Le Pen has come one step closer to launching her campaign to become France's next president when elections take place in May next year. In a speech at the weekend in the southern town of Fréjus, Le Pen said that if elected she would defend national sovereignty. Opinion polls all show that the National Front is almost certainly guaranteed a place in the second round of next year's presidential elections.

French President François Hollande and his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, are angling for a second face-off in the presidential elections scheduled for May of next year. Over the past few weeks, they've traded barbs, first and foremost about their prowess to fight terrorism. But there is no guarantee whatsoever that they will make it to the second round, or even to the election. Their rivals are actually counting on the public's rejection of such a duel to push them out of the running.