Swings and Roundabouts, Ups and Downs: The French Presidential Election of 2017
| Date | 01 April 2017 |
| Author | Paul Hainsworth |
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905817702736 |
| Published date | 01 April 2017 |
30 POLITICAL INSIGHT • APRIL 2017
Even before a single ballot is
likely cast, the road to France’s
2017 presidential election has
been strewn with shocks and
surprises, from financial scandals to political
controversies. With candidates and political
parties leapfrogging one another in the
opinion polls on a regular basis, pundits and
commentators have struggled to gauge the
undulating political mood.
Such tumult seemed unlikely a year before
the election, which is run over two rounds
in April and May. Back then, the scenario
seemed a repeat of the left/right run-off of
the previous presidential election, when
the ultimately successful François Hollande
(Socialist Party, PS) and the then-incumbent
Nicholas Sarkozy (Union for a Popular
Movement, UMP) fought it out on the second
ballot in 2012.
However, after losing to Hollande in 2012,
Sarkozy’s comeback efforts were thwarted
Swings and Roundabouts,
Ups and Downs: The French
Presidential Election of 2017
The run-up to the 2017 French presidential election has been volatile,
with both mainstream right- and left-wing parties struggling, and
the far-right on course for a best ever performance. Paul Hainsworth
examines the winds of change sweeping across the Fifth Republic.
in 2016. Ex-Prime Minister (1995-97) Alain
Juppé gathered momentum and accelerated
past Sarkozy in the ratings as the Republicans
(the successor to the UMP) primary election
loomed – only for both to be overtaken
surprisingly and convincingly by François
Fillon, Sarkozy’s ex-Premier (2007-12). Fillon
won 66.5 per cent of the vote against
Juppé in the decisive second ballot of the
primary, representing a victory for traditional
right-wing values of identity, family, and
(economic) liberalism. Fillon, an admirer of
Margaret Thatcher, appealed to Catholic/
Christian voters, economic liberals and
traditional right-wing voters. Voters saw him
as more likely than Juppé or Sarkozy to defeat
the Front National (FN) leader, Marine Le Pen,
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