May Posted by glhermine. The second round of presidential elections were held in France on May 6, The first round, covered in extensive detail here , was held two weeks ago on April 22, The President of France, the head of state in a semi-presidential system, is elected for a five year term which is renewable once. France has held eight direct presidential elections since , and in none of these eight contests has a candidate ever won an absolute majority of the votes cast in the first round.
Hollande took The first round was marked, above all, by the very strong showing of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who won He stepped up his traditional hard talk on immigration and security key issues for FN voters but also played to his strength as an incumbent who is credible, experienced and tested in the handling of economic crises.
His successful rise in the polls from historic lows to more decent numbers despite trailing was due in part to his skill and charisma as a political leader, but also a certain normalization of things. Right-wing voters, despite any unease with Sarkozy, floated back towards the candidate of their party. Sarkozy, however, entered the runoff with a very steep road to climb. However, it appears as if his campagne au peuple worked out much better than I had expected. Sarkozy needed a blowout victory in the May 2 debate with Hollande to have a chance at actually winning the election.
However, the May 2 confrontation ended up as a tie. Both candidates were equally aggressive against one another, and traded blows for the entirety of the three hour debate which, in French tradition, often turned into a shouting match or a trite schoolyard fight over a stolen sandwich rather than a serious and competently moderated debate about actual issues.
Odds, however, remained heavily stacked against him. Turnout was Since , with the exception of , there has been no major increase in turnout between both rounds, whereas in the s, there was a slightly more significant increase in turnout in the runoff compared to the first round. As always, there was a two-way road in and out of abstention in the second round this year.
