French presidential election, 2002
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The 2002 French presidential election consisted of a first round election on 21 April 2002, and a runoff election between the top two candidates (Jacques Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen) on 5 May 2002. This presidential contest attracted a greater than usual amount of international attention because of far-right candidate Le Pen's unexpected appearance in the runoff election.
Chirac ran for a second term, emphasising a strong economy (mostly unaffected by downturns in Germany and the USA). It was widely expected that Chirac and Lionel Jospin, the then prime minister and candidate for the Socialist Party, would be the most popular candidates in the first round, and would thus go on to face each other in the runoff. However, Jospin unexpectedly finished in third place behind Le Pen. Journalists and politicians then claimed that polls had failed to predict Le Pen's second-place finish in the general election, though his strong stance could be seen in the week prior to the election. This led to serious discussions about polling techniques and the climate of French politics.
Although Le Pen's political party National Front described itself as mainstream conservative, non-partisan observers largely agreed in defining it as a far right or ultra-nationalist party. As a result, almost all French political parties called for their supporters to vote against Le Pen, including the Socialists and many that had previously been opposed to Chirac. Chirac thus went on to win the biggest landslide in a French presidential election (greater even than that of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte in 1848, the first by direct ballot), winning over 82% of the vote.
Source: List of candidates · First round result · Second round result
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