Transatlantic Forum on the French Presidential Elections

On April 14, the French-American Foundation organized a Transatlantic Forum in person with guest speaker Jean-Marie Guéhenno, former French diplomat who served as the United Nations’ Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations from 2000 to August 2008. Mr. Guéhenno discussed the French presidential elections and Alexis Mojaisky, Spokesperson and Chief of Staff at the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations and Transatlantic Forum member, moderated the conversation.

Guéhenno recounted the results, sharing that Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, came runner-up to current President Emmanuel Macron in the first round, held last Sunday, April 10. He noted that under 35% of voters showed up for far-left candidate Mélenchon, 35-65% voted for Le Pen and 65%+ voted for Macron.

The polls indicate that the second round of the election, to be held Sunday, April 24, will be a very close race. Marine Le Pen is only a few points behind the incumbent president in the race for the run-off. In this context, Mr. Guéhenno considered possible scenarios and their consequences depending on which candidate is elected.

M. Guéhenno recently released a new book “Le Premier XXIe siècle: De la globalization à l’émiettement du monde” published in September 2021.