Introduction

Abstract

The 2017 French presidential election did not go according to plan. Both mainstream governing parties failed to get a candidate to the second round, for the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic, and the expected left–right alternation, the pattern of executive turnover at previous elections, was disrupted. The eventual winner, Emmanuel Macron, exploited a series of opportunities in political space, voter dissatisfaction, a radical right opponent, and weakened mainstream candidates to establish the first majoritarian centrist executive since 1959. This chapter sets out these key features of this election, which will be examined in greater detail in the subsequent chapters in the book.