“Anything Could Happen” in the French Election

Posted: April 22nd, 2017

By Steven Kramer

Steven Philip Kramer served as the Policy Advisor to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs from 1996-2002. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He serves as the Professor of Grand Strategy at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University in Washington, D.C. His books include Does France still Count: The French Role in the New Europe, Trouble in Paradise? Europe in the 21st Century, coauthored with Professor Irene Kyriakopoulos, and Socialism in Western Europe: The Experience of a Generation.

French citizens head to the voting stations Sunday to narrow the field of candidates for the nation’s next president. The top two winners in the first round of voting will go head-to-head in a second round of voting on May 7, if neither wins more than half the votes, which is unlikely. The second-round contestants are likely to be non-traditional parties: neither the Republicans nor the Socialist candidate is expected to survive round one. But the polls say the race is too close to call. The Cipher Brief’s Kaitlin Lavinder spoke with Steven Kramer – a public policy fellow at the Wilson Center, who served as Policy Advisor to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs from 1996 to 2002 – about the upcoming French elections, and implications for France and the global community.

The Cipher Brief: What is your take on the first round of France’s presidential elections coming up Sunday? Who are the candidates, and how do you think they’re going to do?

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