France approves 11 candidates for presidential race
Eleven candidates have been approved to run for French president, the country's Constitutional Council announced Saturday, a month before the vote.
The eleven received the 500-plus signatures from mayors needed to compete in the first round of the election on April 23, the council's president Laurent Fabius said.
With no candidate expected to win an outright majority at the first round, the two top contenders will go through to a decisive run-off on May 7th.
On Monday evening, five main candidates will go head-to-head in the first of three TV debates.
They are: far-right leader Marine Le Pen, centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron, Republicans nominee Francois Fillon, the Socialist Party's Benoit Hamon and Communist-backed candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.
The other six candidates, none of whom is expected to garner over five percent, include a Trotskyist economy teacher, an anti-American nationalist convinced the European Union is an CIA-backed plot and a conspiracy theorist who has called in the past for a "thermo-nuclear corridor" between Earth and Mars.
https://www.thelocal.fr/20170318/france-approves-11-candidates-for-presidential-race
So here's the full list of candidates ;
François Fillon : The Republicans
Benoît Hamon : Socialist Party
Emmanuel Macron : En Marche!
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan : Arise France
Jean-Luc Mélenchon : Left Party
Nathalie Arthaud : Worker's struggle
Marine Le Pen : National Front
François Asselineau : UPR
Philippe Poutou : New Anti Capitalist Party
Jacques Cheminade : Solidarity and Progress
Jean Lasalle : /
(Don't even know)
Also,the Green candidate,Yannick Jadot decided earlier to back Benoît Hamon so gets out of the race.
@Philia @LA se Karachi
-
Meanwhile,Macron presented his Defense policies this morning,and among the other things,proposes a short and compulsory military service of 1 month to the young persons between 18 and 21 years old. This would councern about 600K persons each years. He says that he wants every young persons to experience the military life
(even if shortly) and to take part in the defense spirit. He adds that in case of crisis,we would be able to mobilize additional personnels alongside the National Guard.
@Louiq XIV @Taygibay Personally,I think this is a good idea. But 1 month seems too short to me. He estimates the cost at between €2 and €3Bn each years + between €15 and €20Bn to create the needed infrastructures.
----->
https://www.challenges.fr/entrepris...marche-de-macron-analyse-et-decryptage_461309