2012 French presidential election

2012 French presidential election

← 2007 22 April 2012 (first round) 6 May 2012 (second round) 2017 →
Turnout	79.48% (first round) 4.29 pp 80.35% (second round) 3.62 pp
Nominee François Hollande Nicolas Sarkozy Party PS UMP Popular vote 18,000,668 16,860,685 Percentage 51.64% 48.36%
First round results by department and region Second round results by department and region
President before election Nicolas Sarkozy UMP Elected President François Hollande PS

Presidential elections were held in France on 22 April 2012 (or 21 April in some overseas departments and territories), with a second round run-off held on 6 May (or 5 May for those same territories) to elect the President of France (who is also ex officio one of the two joint heads of state of Andorra, a sovereign state). The incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy was running for a second five-year term for which he was eligible for under the Constitution of France.

The first round ended with the selection of François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy as second round participants, as neither of them received a majority of votes cast in the first round. Hollande won the runoff with 51.64% of the vote to Sarkozy's 48.36%.^[1] It was the second time in French history and the first time since the 1981 election that a President seeking reelection was denied a second term, and the only time the incumbent seeking reelection did not obtain the most votes in the first round.

The presidential elections were followed by legislative elections in June. This is the last French presidential election in which the winning candidate won by a single-digit margin.