French Presidential Election Warns The World

We look at France’s 2027 presidential race—a vote that matters because the next president inherits a debt exceeding 120% of GDP and the impossible task of reforming pensions without triggering a social explosion.

Marine Le Pen is running again, despite a criminal conviction for embezzling public funds. She remains eligible after an appeals court reduced her ban from office. What makes her different is not just the MAGA-style defiance she now performs—treating legal constraints as persecution—but her emphasis on working-class economic protection over the economic liberalism of her own party president, Jordan Bardella. She is running as the candidate of the “forgotten,” while promising to appoint Bardella as prime minister.

Meanwhile, US-France relations are fraying. Washington has stalled the approval of France’s ambassador nominee, retaliating for French criticism on human rights and trade. A Le Pen presidency would likely deepen that rift.

This is a campaign where criminal convictions, class resentment, and transatlantic distrust collide.

Guest Info: Dr. Renaud Foucart is a senior lecturer at the Department of Economics at Lancaster University Management School, and an associate fellow of the OPGDI (Oxford University) and ECARES (Université libre de Bruxelles)