Presidential Election 2027: One year before the deadline, the campaign accounts are already open

The campaign accounts for the 2027 presidential election have been open since Wednesday, April 1, but not all parties are (yet) fully operational.

Published on: April 4, 2026 07:55

Reading time: 3 minutes

Image: The Elysée Palace. (Illustration image) (LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP)

For all candidates declaring their candidacy for the presidential election, April 1 is a crucial date: all expenses related to the 2027 campaign from that day (travel, speeches, leaflets) must be listed within the authorized limits: €16.5 million for first-round candidates, and up to €22 million for finalists.

“We cannot open a campaign account because we do not know the candidate,” confides an RN executive. Will it be Marine Le Pen or Jordan Bardella? The answer will come on July 7, depending on whether the judges confirm Marine Le Pen’s ineligibility in the case of European parliamentary assistants. In the meantime, the RN is “taking notes” to add expenses retroactively to the future campaign account, with special attention on May 1. If the ceremony turns into a grand campaign speech, it will be less money to spend later. The PS also has no name to attach to a campaign account, especially since the question of participating in the primary with ecologists and former insubordinate members is unresolved. However, a Socialist leader downplays the situation: “A year before, we never have our candidate!”

Things are simpler for declared candidates. This is the case for Édouard Philippe. His party, Horizons, can account for all the campaign activities of the former Prime Minister. Many on the right and center advocate for a single candidate in the end, while Bruno Retailleau, officially a candidate, will spend money from his side, just like Gabriel Attal setting up his candidacy.

What happens financially if one or more candidates withdraw in favor of another? If Édouard Philippe, currently leading in the polls, ends up alone at the starting line, his campaign accounts will not be burdened by the expenses of others, so there is no risk of exceeding the limit. However, when a contender drops out of the race, their party often requests compensation because if they withdraw, it means they will not receive a euro of public reimbursement. That is why in 2012, the UMP wrote a check for €800,000 to Christine Boutin after her withdrawal in favor of Nicolas Sarkozy, and the Socialist Party paid €200,000 to the ecologists in 2017 when Yannick Jadot joined Benoît Hamon.

In essence, this implies having enough to reimburse potential allies. However, a leader of Horizons admits: “It seems difficult for me to take on the expenses of others.” This is a way of saying that funding Édouard Philippe’s campaign is already a lot. This reinforces a Macronist advocate of a primary in the fall: “In February, no one will be able to take on the liabilities of others.”