Twelve candidates line up to contest French presidential election

There will be 12 candidates in the first round of the French presidential election on 10 April, according to an official statement issued on Monday by Laurent Fabius, head of the Constitutional Council.

The Elysée Palace in Paris, official residence of the French president. AP - Thomas Coex

"In conformity with the French constitution, and with all relevant laws, the Constitutional Council has validated the candidacy of 12 persons in the presidential election to be held on 10 and 24 April next," Laurent Fabius announced.

Out of the 60 names on the list, only 12 contenders obtained the required 500 valid signatures from elected officials in at least 30 different French departments:

• Marine Le Pen, National Rally, far right
• Eric Zemmour, Reconquest, far right
• Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Stand Up France, right-wing sovereigntist
• Valérie Pécresse, The Republicans, mainstream right
• Emmanuel Macron, Republic on the Move, centrist
• Anne Hidalgo, Socialist Party, mainstream left
• Yannick Jadot, Green Party, ecologist
• Jean-Luc Mélenchon, France Unbowed, far left
• Fabien Roussel, French Communist Party, far left
• Jean Lassalle, Resist!, far left
• Nathalie Arthaud, Workers' Struggle, far left
• Philippe Poutou, New Anticapitalist Party, far left

The Constitutional Council has also indicated that each candidate is willing to contest the election and has agreed to make the statutory declaration concerning their property and financial interests.

Of the 13,672 signatures of mayors submitted in support of the various candidates, the council accepted 13, 427 as valid.

One potential candidate, the anti-EU campaigner François Asselineau, was forced to withdraw because he did not have the necessary 500 names.