Annual Report 2022

ELECTIONS IN FRANCE

REPORT

RAPHAËL HERMANO

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

FOR FRANCE

When did the planning start for the 2022

French presidential election?

The France chief editors and the politics service, then

headed by Christophe Schmidt, started planning in Sep-

tember 2021. As well as the purely political aspects of the

campaign, we also identified several topics we thought

would be useful to paint a picture of France: purchasing

power, employment, health, social inequality, security, en-

ergy, immigration. The services in Paris and across France

were asked to think about 10 of these topics to pitch repor-

tage ideas, focus pieces, explainers, etc. We received a rich

and varied selection of pitches.

Starting from mid-January 2022, we published between six

to eight stories on one of the topics chosen, all accompa-

nied of course with photos, videos and graphics. It is the

first time we have ever taken such an in-depth approach. At

the same time, the politics service started a daily campaign

wrap focusing on the key news of the day, written by two

journalists dedicated solely to that task. The whole politics

team, which was organised to follow either declared or li-

kely candidates, fed elements into this story, which became

the heart of our coverage This wrap was complemented

every day by political angles topical explainers reportage

etc

How did Covid influence this campaign

Covid was a very significant part of the context behind this

election It meant for a unique atmosphere with many in

France exhausted by pandemic restrictions and where

the news was partly dominated by debate and demonstra

tions about the vaccine pass The epidemic often dictated

the pace of the campaign For many months Emmanuel

Macron was a noncandidate on the frontline of the Covid

response Campaign rallies were cancelled or postponed

Public meetings had restricted numbers or everyone had

to wear masks Some candidates fell sick and were wary of

meeting people and shaking hands

How did you deal with Éric Zemmour’s

arrival on the political scene?

At first, the idea of Éric Zemmour being a candidate was a

hypothetical one, and we treated it as such. As soon as he

officially became a candidate, at the end of November 2021,

he was the big novelty of the election campaign, who could

potentially poach votes from the right and the far-right,

shaking up the second round. By the end, we saw that he

wasn’t a key factor. We covered him like any other candi-

date. However, after the violence committed by some of his

supporters at his first rally at Villepinte in December, and

threats aimed at certain journalists, we were doubly careful

at his public outings. For the first time ever during a French

election campaign, we had to hire security agents to protect

our VJs – our most visible journalists – during his campaign

rallies. Everyone was briefed on how to behave if threate-

ned or attacked etc. Luckily, we did not have a serious in-

cident.

How did Russia’s invasion of Ukraine affect

the campaign?

At first this major event completely froze the campaign

French news seemed like small fry with war once again ra

ging in Europe Then the topic of Russia began to become

part of the debate forcing the candidates who had declared

ties to Vladimir Putin to defend their past positions The

conflict also delayed Emmanuel Macrons entry into the

campaign and bolstered his polling The war also weighed

on how he announced he was running a simple letter in the

regional press as unostentatious as could be Internatio

nal affairs usually play very little role in domestic political

elections but this war definitely weighed on the campaign

and threw up new topics like how to welcome refugees or

inflation

How were we organised in the field

In concrete terms every major candidate was followed by

one of our journalists at all times. The politics service was of

course fully mobilised and had some reinforcements from

other departments, as well as the active support of the

regional bureaux. Photo and video were always fully inte-

grated into the coverage. Video produced a huge amount

of live coverage – the most ever for a French election. All

journalists were included on a WhatsApp group, so they

could communicate quicker and ensure better coordination

between text, photo, and video.

The digital investigation team was also directly involved

with the politics service, both departments communica-

ting constantly. They worked on a lot of topics, mainly fac-

tchecks, and some of the political stories were adapted for

social media.

What changed with Emmanuel Macron’s

arrival on the campaign trail?

Emmanuel Macron got off to a gentle start For a long time

he allowed the campaign to go ahead without him and his

rivals tired themselves out However he was always expec

ted to throw his hat into the ring all the polls showed he

would win a second round runoff against Marine Le Pen

Even during the campaign he was rather conservative with

his actions playing the role of someone above the fray This

eventually paid off for him The surprises in this election

came from elsewhere not many foresaw the steady rise of

JeanLuc Mélenchon who was not far from snatching se

cond place from Marine Le Pen in the first round The col

lapse of Valérie Pécresse on the right was also more spec

tacular than expected even if poll after poll had shown her

losing ground

The low turnout rate was however predictable The politics

service spent a lot of time covering this topic with several

analyses focus pieces and reportages We had never be

fore written so much about the crisis of democratic repre-

sentation.

When the first-round result dropped, was

everything ready?

The wrap moved at 20:01, one minute after the result put-

ting Emmanuel Macron in the lead. That was a record. We

had prepared meticulously so that the wrap could be pu-

blished as soon as the initial estimates dropped at 20:00.

We received the estimates a couple of minutes beforehand.

Everyone knew what to do, all hands were on deck to be

able to read and digest the results calmly. We had reporters

deployed at the candidates’ HQs and they were able to feed

into the story quickly. Like for every election, we also had a

cell of volunteers who offered to help the politics service co-

ver the various reactions. Of course the second round was

easier to cover as the outcome was more predictable

"The wrap moved at 20:01, one minute after the result putting

Emmanuel Macron in the lead. That was a record

ANNE-PASCALE REBOUL

JOURNALIST AT THE POLITICAL

SERVICE, RESPONSIBLE FOR

PARLIAMENTARY COVERAGE

People walk past French presidential candidates cam-

paign posters three days ahed of the first round of the

French presidential election, in Paris on April 7, 2022.

Electoral campaign posters displayed on electo

ral billboards in SaintMalodeGuersac western