France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with a bicameral legislature. Public officials in the legislative and executive branches are either elected by the citizens or appointed by elected officials. Referenda may also be called to consult the French citizenry directly on a particular question, especially one which concerns amendment to the Constitution.
Scene inside a polling station during the French presidential election of 2007: election officials and a standard transparent ballot box.
Standard transparent ballot box used in France. The voter puts the envelope containing the votes into the box and then signs the electoral roll to avoid double votes.
Some French cities use voting machines.
Isolation booth
The Socialist Party is a French centre-left and social-democratic political party. It holds pro-European views. The PS was for decades the largest party of the "French Left" and used to be one of the two major political parties in the French Fifth Republic, along with the Union for a Popular Movement. It replaced the earlier French Section of the Workers' International in 1969 and is currently led by First Secretary Olivier Faure. The PS is a member of the Party of European Socialists, Progressive Alliance and Socialist International.
From left to right: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Bertrand Delanoë and Ségolène Royal sitting in the front row at a meeting held on 6 February 2007 by the PS at the Carpentier Hall in Paris
Rue de Solférino, a party seat in Paris which was sold to Apsys in December 2017 for 45.55 million euros