This Friday is the last day for French presidential candidates to gather the 500 signatures of support they need in order to stand in the upcoming presidential election. Main contenders François Fillon, Emmanuel Macron, Benoît Hamon and Marine Le Pen have all reached that threshold. RFI takes a look at who’s in the running.
For a candidate to be allowed to run for president, he or she needs 500 written endorsements from elected officials. Those signatures have to be sent to the Constitutional Council by the end of today.
Those signatures must come from at least 30 different regional departments.
This rule was created to make sure there wouldn’t be too many minor candidates running for France’s top position, but it has been criticised several times by politicians, notably far-right Marine Le Pen and far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Eight candidates so far, including the five main contenders, far-right Marine Le Pen, centrist Emmanuel Macron, right-wing François Fillon, Socialist Benoît Hamon and far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon have gotten their 500 signatures.