2012 French Presidential Election

     The most recent French Presidential Election was historic. April 22 2012 was the date of the first round, with 10 separate candidates representing all political parties from extreme left to extreme right wing individuals. Amongst these is current president Nicolas Sarkozy under the "Union for a Popular Movement" party who is running for a second successive five year term (under the French Constitution, that would be his last five year term). The other nine candidates include Francois Hollande, Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Melenchon, Francois Bayrou, Eva Joly, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Philippe Poutou, Nathalie Arthaud, and Jacques Cheminade.
     Sarkozy and Francois Hollande won the first round and proceeded to campaign until May 6 2012 when the second round was held. Sarkozy made a point to please the right extremists, focusing a large portion of his campaign on stricter immigration. Hollande's main focus was the state of the economy, which as of now is as bad if not worse than the United States' economic recession of 2008. While neither of the two candidates won the majority of the votes in the first round, Hollande, representing the "Socialist Party" , won over Sarkozy in the second round runoff election with 51.62% to Sarkozy's 48.38%. This made Sarkozy the first one term president since 1981 in France.
     When I traveled to Paris, France over Spring Break, it was immediatly following the first round, and Sarkozy and Hollande were seen everywhere. There were posters, ads, and commercials on the television. One day Sarkozy gave a speech at the Concorde and thousands of people attended. We stayed away from the city that day! It was interesting to hear my Uncle talk about the election and to compare their process with ours. In many respects it is similar but there are distinct differences. It seems to me that with 10 candidates prior to the first round there would be too many options and the votes would be spread across the board.