None of the candidates succeeded in gathering an absolute majority of the 25 voters during the four ballots.

This is the second consecutive time that a "white election" has taken place on chair 19, previously occupied by the writer Jean-Loup Dabadie, but also Boileau, Chateaubriand, Paul Deschanel or René Clair.

Benoît Duteurtre, 62, who had submitted his candidacy at the end of June, was the favorite.

While he needed 13 votes, he got 11 in the first and fourth rounds, and 10 in the second and third rounds.

The writer Frédéric Beigbeder, January 7, 2022 in Paris JOEL SAGET AFP / Archives

Frédéric Beigbeder, 57, who posed as a rival in mid-October, gathered less.

After 7 votes in the first round, it climbed to 9 in the second, before getting 8 in the third and fourth.

Between these two men of the same generation, it is a "fratricidal game", wrote Le Figaro when the second had started.

"They risk neutralizing each other," said one of the academicians interviewed by the daily, on condition of anonymity.

A prediction that turned out to be correct.

Both were penalized by white (1 in the first round), and white marked with a cross (4 in the first and second rounds, then 5).

Another white election in May resulted in the failure of two journalists, Franz-Olivier Giesbert and Olivier Barrot.

The two did not immediately re-apply, but may still do so later.

The writer Benoît Duteurtre, April 25, 2019 in Paris Lionel BONAVENTURE AFP / Archives

Seven other candidates presented themselves on Thursday.

Eduardo Pisani, singer under the name Eduardo, obtained one vote in each round for his 17th candidacy.

He is trying to beat Émile Zola's record, failed 25 times.

The poet Éric Dubois got one vote in the first three rounds, then none in the last.

There are still four other seats to be filled at the French Academy, on a date yet to be determined.

The election to the French Academy allows him to sit until the end of his days, in an assembly founded in 1635 with the mission of defending the French language and writing a dictionary.

Its members are therefore keen to choose academicians with whom they are sure to get on well over the long term.

The institution, whose prestige has declined in recent decades, is the target of much criticism for its conservatism and lack of competence in judging language issues.

© 2022 AFP