BPSC 70th CCE Re-exam Prelims General Studies · Question 45 of 142

Correct — B, Emmanuel Macron. France elects its President by direct universal suffrage in a two-round system under Article 7 of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic: if no candidate wins an absolute majority in the first round, the top two go to a run-off a fortnight later. In 2022 the first round was held on 10 April and the run-off on 24 April. Macron led the first round with about 28 per cent, ahead of Marine Le Pen on about 23, Jean-Luc Mélenchon on about 22 and Éric Zemmour on about 7, with Valérie Pécresse of the Republicans on 5 and Anne Hidalgo of the Socialists on 2 — the worst first-round results in history for the two parties that had dominated French politics until 2017. In the run-off Macron took 18,768,639 votes, or 58.55 per cent, against Le Pen's 13,288,686, or 41.45 per cent. Turnout was 73.69 per cent in the first round and 71.99 per cent in the second, the lowest for a presidential run-off since 1969. The result made Macron the first President of the Fifth Republic to win re-election since Jacques Chirac in 2002, and it was a rematch of 2017, in which he had beaten the same opponent by a wider margin — Le Pen had taken 33.9 per cent then against 41.45 now, so the gap narrowed sharply even as the outcome held. The presidential vote was followed by legislative elections on 12 and 19 June 2022 for the 577 seats of the National Assembly, at which Macron's coalition lost its absolute majority — a distinction worth keeping, because 'Macron was re-elected' and 'Macron commanded a parliamentary majority' were no longer the same statement after June 2022.

• (a)Marine Le Pen — The defeated run-off candidate, not the winner — and defeated by Macron for the second time, having also lost the 2017 run-off with 33.9 per cent. She leads the National Rally, the party formerly called the National Front, and had earlier contested the 2012 election, finishing third in the first round with 17.9 per cent. Reaching the run-off twice is not the same as being elected.
• (c)Éric Zemmour — Eliminated in the first round. A journalist and commentator who founded the party Reconquête in December 2021, Zemmour took about 7 per cent on 10 April 2022, finishing fourth. He was one of the most visible figures of the campaign, which is why the name is familiar, but he never reached the run-off.
• (d)Jean-Luc Mélenchon — Also eliminated in the first round, and only narrowly — his roughly 22 per cent for La France Insoumise left him close behind Le Pen's 23. He had finished fourth in both 2012 and 2017. His near miss in 2022 was the most discussed result of the first round, which makes him a plausible-looking name here, but the run-off was between Macron and Le Pen.

France under the Fifth Republic, established in 1958, is a semi-presidential system: a directly elected President with substantial powers of his own sits alongside a Prime Minister and government that must retain the confidence of the National Assembly. The President is elected for five years — the term was cut from seven to five by the quinquennat reform approved in 2000 — and since 2008 may serve no more than two consecutive terms. To appear on the first-round ballot a candidate must collect at least 500 signatures, the parrainages, from elected officials drawn from at least thirty different departments, with no more than a tenth from any one department; the Constitutional Council alone certifies the list. Because the two-round system forces a straight choice at the end, a President can win the run-off with a very large share while commanding a much smaller base in the first round, and that is the pattern of both Macron victories.

Current-affairs questions on foreign heads of government are answered by holding a small, well-maintained table rather than by recognition, because every name in an option set of this kind will be familiar from news coverage. For France the entries to keep are: President Emmanuel Macron, elected 2017 and re-elected 24 April 2022 against Marine Le Pen; the runners who did not reach the run-off, Mélenchon and Zemmour; and the fact that the presidential and legislative elections are separate contests held weeks apart. The India connection is worth carrying because Indian examiners use it: Macron and Prime Minister Narendra Modi co-chaired the AI Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris on 10 and 11 February 2025, and Macron was the chief guest at India's 75th Republic Day celebrations on 26 January 2024. Both of those events belong to the second term this question is about, so remembering either one dates the re-election correctly.

• The 2022 French presidential election was held in two rounds, on 10 April and 24 April 2022, under Article 7 of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic.
• Run-off result: Emmanuel Macron 18,768,639 votes (58.55 per cent) against Marine Le Pen 13,288,686 (41.45 per cent); second-round turnout was 71.99 per cent, the lowest since 1969.
• First-round shares: Macron about 28 per cent, Le Pen 23, Mélenchon 22, Zemmour 7, Pécresse 5 and Hidalgo 2.
• Macron became the first French president re-elected since Jacques Chirac in 2002; Le Pen had lost to him in 2017 as well, with 33.9 per cent in that run-off.
• The legislative elections that followed on 12 and 19 June 2022, for the 577 seats of the National Assembly, cost Macron's coalition its absolute majority.

• Picking Marine Le Pen because she is the most recognisable French name in Indian news coverage. She reached the run-off in both 2017 and 2022 and lost both.
• Confusing the presidential election of April 2022 with the legislative elections of June 2022, at which Macron's coalition lost its absolute majority.
• Assuming the first-round leader is automatically the President. In a two-round system the run-off can and sometimes does reverse the first-round order.

BPSC's current-affairs block asks world leaders and international events in exactly this one-line form — who was elected, which country hosted, which city — and it draws on the two or three years before the paper. UPSC almost never asks a bare 'who is the President of X' question; when France appears in its papers it is through institutions and comparative politics instead, such as its item on which country requires a successor to be elected simultaneously with a no-confidence motion.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The President of France is elected for a term of

  • (a)Four years
  • (b)Five years
  • (c)Six years
  • (d)Seven years

  Answer(b) Five years — the term was reduced from seven years to five by the quinquennat reform approved in a referendum in 2000, and since 2008 no President may serve more than two consecutive terms.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which world leader was the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations in 2024 ?

  • (a)Emmanuel Macron
  • (b)Joko Widodo
  • (c)Cyril Ramaphosa
  • (d)Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

  Answer(a) Emmanuel Macron — the French President was chief guest at the 75th Republic Day parade on 26 January 2024. El-Sisi had been the chief guest the previous year.