The French go to the polls this spring to elect a new president. After the surprise of the US election, the UK vote for Brexit, and the rise of Europe’s far right, the world will be watching. In round one, on 23 April, all candidates with 500 signatures from elected officials will face off. Two weeks later, on 7 May, the two top candidates will face each other in a second run-off. These are the main candidates, from left to right of the political spectrum.

Jacques Demarthon · AFP · Getty

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, La France Insoumise (Unsubmissive France)

Mélenchon is founder of the Left Party and candidate for the ‘radical’ left (as distinct from the Socialist Party and allies). To end the ‘presidential monarchy’ of the Fifth Republic and its culture of privilege, he would convene an assembly to write a new constitution for a Sixth Republic. He would reorganise taxation to redistribute wealth and promote a transition to sustainable energy. He would withdraw from EU treaties and hold discussions with European progressives aimed at either changing the EU or leaving, with the aim of re-establishing it as a social Europe.

Benoît Hamon, Parti Socialiste (PS)

From the social-democratic left, Hamon beat Manuel Valls, former prime minister under François Hollande, to become the Socialist Party candidate. He has the support of Ecology Party leader Yannick Jadot, who withdrew his own candidacy on 23 February. Hamon opposed two laws brought in under Hollande and, to rebuild ties with voters on the left as the candidate who would rescue the social security system, he has made a universal basic income (€600 a month paid unconditionally to all entitled to RSA in-work benefit, and eventually the entire population) a key feature of his programme (see Financing a basic income). He wants a new political contract for the EU, based on developing the European defence union, investing in energy transition to end austerity, and social and fiscal convergence to end all forms of dumping. He would introduce blank ballots and a single seven-year presidential term of office.

Emmanuel Macron, En Marche! (Forward!)

An energetic liberal centrist, currently high in the polls, Macron has never held elected office but was economy minister to François Hollande. He left the government last August to create his own party En Marche! (see New man Macron’s old-style expertise). He has worked at the finance inspectorate and at Rothschild. He wants to gradually introduce an ultraliberal programme, an extension of his proposals under Hollande. He would abolish employees’ contributions to health and unemployment insurance, which could force workers to move to more expensive and inferior private schemes. Detractors criticise him for focusing on his dynamic young manager image and being slow to set out a clear programme. He won an important endorsement from the centrist Democratic Movement’s François Bayrou on 22 February.

François Fillon, Les Républicains (former UMP)

On the right, Fillon’s programme centres on free trade, restoring state authority and affirming ‘republican’ values, and involves abolishing wealth tax, spending €12bn more on security, defence and justice, and raising the retirement age to 65. His economic stance is similar to that of Emmanuel Macron; he too wants to abolish the 35-hour week. He has the support of the Catholic right (who demonstrated against same-sex marriage in 2012-3), and has said he would restrict medically assisted procreation to infertile heterosexual couples and ban surrogacy, sparking a debate over stigmatising same-sex couples. His campaign has been threatened by accusations of embezzling public funds by claiming that his wife Penelope worked for him as a parliamentary aide.

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Debout la France! (France Arise!)

On the right, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan is a Gaullist and advocates protectionism. He would suspend any new European legislation that reduces France’s economic independence. He wants an à la carte EU to drive projects such as the fight against major diseases. He would withdraw from NATO, allowing France to regain its military independence and to be closer to Russia.

Marine Le Pen, Front National (FN)

The popular candidate of the far right, Marine Le Pen would hold a referendum on EU membership, as in the UK. She would take France out of the Schengen area in the name of the war on terror and ‘defence of national identity’. Her ‘economic patriotism’ programme would seek to secure France’s monetary, legislative and territorial sovereignty. She champions ‘strict’ secularism; blames immigration for economic crises, unemployment and suburban violence; and would increase France’s defence budget and give police greater resources to ‘disarm the suburbs’.

Other candidates include Nathalie Artaud of the Communist Trotskyist left Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Struggle), which would end private ownership of means of production (nationalising banks and major enterprises); Philippe Poutou of the Marxist Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (New Anticapitalist Party), which would abolish the neoliberal ‘caste’, ban redundancies and job cuts, move to a 32-hour week and nationalise major enterprises; and Jacques Cheminade of Solidarité et Progrès (Solidarity and Progress), affiliated to the Lyndon LaRouche movement, who wants to withdraw from NATO and the EU.