The 2017 French Presidential Election, 23 March 2017

In 2012 the Cardiff EDC held a quickly organised, almost spontaneous, and very successful event about the Presidential Election being held in that year in France. We had a number of full time and part time interns from France who were keen to explain to an audience in Wales all aspects of the French political and electoral system and the role of the President.

Five years on and another French Presidential election, with the first round of voting on 23 April 2017 and the second round on 7 May. By chance we currently have six full time and part time interns from France at the Cardiff EDC, who were enthusiastic to take part in a similar event. The 2017 election is being closely watched across Europe for a number of reasons and the campaign has been full of fascinating twists and turns so far.

Each intern spoke expertly for five minutes on an aspect of the French political system:

• Coralie Beauchard: Role of the President
• Manon Quero: Procedure of the election
• Clément Charon: Social issues of the election
• Morgane Hervy: Who are the candidates?
• Bastien Beauducel: What is happening in the campaign?
• Solène Louvet: The impact of the French election for Europe
• Bastien Beauducel: The legislative election, June 2017

Christie Margrave, a British postgraduate researcher of France and recently appointed Lecturer in Modern Languages, ably chaired the event. Following the presentations we held a lively discussion with the audience of about 40 students and local people.

Alongside the drinks on offer to our guests, our wonderful interns decided we needed some appropriate food for the occasion – so a group of them spent the afternoon preparing some delicious crêpes, which all disappeared in a very short period of time.

We now await the results of the election in April and May, better informed and with renewed interest!

More photographs from the event are available on our Facebook page.