Institute for North American and European Studies and the Department of European Studies of the Faculty of World Studies held the forum on the various dimensions of the 2017 French presidential elections in Hananeh Hall of the Faculty on Saturday, April 22, 2017.
The forum began with an analysis of the five-year presidency of François Hollande by Fatemeh Shah Mohammadi, MA student of French Studies.
Then, Muhammad Taghi Gholami, also an MA student of French Studies, introduced the 2017 presidential candidates and analyzed their economic, security, and foreign policies and programs.
The next panel began with Dr. Majid Vahid, Member of the Faculty of Law and Political Science of University of Tehran and the Visiting Professor of Lyon Institute of Political Studies, talking about the distinct nature of the current election with regards to the previous presidential elections in France and highlighted the influences that winning the election by each candidate will have on security, economic, and international relations issues. “Four candidates have the chance to go to round 2. The far right candidate will likely lose in the second round,” he said.
Then, Dr. Muhammad Reza Majidi, also a Member of the Faculty of Law and Political Science of University of Tehran, briefly discussed the historical relations of Iran and France and analyzed the effects of the outcome of the election on the future Iran-France relations. “Anyone who wins the election will not change the general scope of the relations between Iran and France because they have never been so strategic,” he argued.
The forum concluded after a Q&A session between the speakers and French invitees.
