10 presidential facts ahead of France's 2027 election

Politicians and parties are gearing up for France's 2027 presidential election campaign.

The election is set to be held next April and May over two rounds and current President Emmanuel Macron is exempt from running for a third consecutive term, meaning France is guaranteed a new head of state.

We look at 10 presidential facts - from becoming an elected monarch to nuclear powers - ahead of next year's election.

1. The president of France automatically becomes co-prince of Andorra, and therefore the only elected monarch in the world.

2. Until 2000, French presidents were elected for a seven-year term. This has now been reduced to five years, and no president can serve more than two consecutive terms.

3. Diplomacy is a presidential responsibility. French presidents negotiate treaties, receive diplomats and direct diplomatic relations. The president has the final say on the appointment of the head of the French Diplomatic Service.

4. All aspects of defence are directly under the control of the president, who has the nuclear codes, is Head of the Armed Forces, has the final say on the appointment of the Defence Minister, and has the authority to order military action. If the president decides to use nuclear weapons, he must issue a launch order accompanied by top-secret nuclear codes to confirm its authenticity, which can then be validated by military officers. 

5. The Palais de l'Elysée, now the president's official residence, was home to Louis XV's influential mistress, Madame de Pompadour, from 1753 until her death in 1764.

6. "Grâce présidentielle" is the president's power to commute or cancel either wholly or partly a criminal sentence imposed by the courts. President Emmanuel Macron granted a partial pardon for a 74-year-old woman and former sex worker called Marie-Claire, who was sentenced in 1988 to life imprisonment for the murder of a male client. She was diagnosed with mental health problems and after spending several years in prison, she was moved to a psychiatric hospital in Rennes. The partial grâce allowed her to apply for therapeutic outings or to visit an external doctor. Marie-Claire's lawyer believed the grâce was granted because her client's sentence "no longer made sense."

7. A parking amnesty, under which all outstanding parking fines were cancelled just after a presidential election fell into disuse when President Nicolas Sarkozy refused to grant it on the grounds that it encouraged undisciplined parking. President Macron followed suit.

8. Le fort de Brégançon, on a massive rocky outcrop in the Mediterranean to the west of Saint-Tropez, was opened to the public in 2014, but remains the president's official summer retreat. President François Hollande only visited the fort once, in 2012, when his then companion Valérie Trierweiler caused a scandal by ordering 14 cushions for the Fort at a cost to the public purse of €200 each.

9. The president is paid around €16,000 per month (€14,500 net) and as well as living at the Palais de l'Elysée and having the use of a fleet of official cars (all French makes) and planes to use, also has free run of the SNCF network.

10. Despite France's strict separation of state and church, the French president is automatically also the "first and only honorary canon" of the Saint John Lateran Basilica, the Cathedral Church of Rome.