Elections in France: Electoral Disorder in a Realignment Era
Résumé
Confronted with a major and lasting global economic crisis, Nicolas Sarkozy did not win re-election in May 2012 as President of the French Republic. Elected in 2007 on the promise of building a new era of prosperity, he quickly became unpopular, finishing his term with a rising rate of unemployment and an enormous amount of public debt. Trailing Socialist Party (PS) candidate François Hollande in the first round (27.2 against 28.6 per cent), Sarkozy managed nevertheless to resist the recovery of the National Front (FN) led by Marine Le Pen (17.9 per cent), before losing by only a rather small margin in the runoff (48.6 per cent). This conservative resistance was quite unexpected. However, it did not outlive Sarkozy’s defeat, as the PS benefited from a presidential push in the June legislative elections and secured a comfortable hold on the National Assembly.