Key figures: François Hollande (Socialist Party, winner); Nicolas Sarkozy (incumbent, Union for a Popular Movement); Marine Le Pen (National Front); Jean-Luc Mélenchon (Left Front)
Summary
France held its presidential election in two rounds in the spring of 2012. In the first round, on 22 April 2012, François Hollande of the Socialist Party led with 28.63% of the vote, narrowly ahead of the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy of the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement, on 27.18%. Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front took a then-record 17.90%, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the Left Front won 11.10%, on a turnout of about 79.5%. Because no candidate won an outright majority, the top two advanced to a run-off.
In the second round, on 6 May 2012, Hollande defeated Sarkozy with 51.64% of the vote (18,000,668 ballots) to 48.36% (16,860,685 ballots), on a turnout of roughly 80.3%. Hollande, who had campaigned as a “normal” president in deliberate contrast to Sarkozy’s high-profile style, promised to raise taxes on high earners, restore the retirement age of 60 for many long-serving workers, and renegotiate the European Union’s fiscal-discipline treaty. He was inaugurated on 15 May 2012.
The contest unfolded against the backdrop of the ongoing European debt crisis and a Europe-wide debate over austerity, and it became a referendum on Sarkozy’s handling of the economy and his personal record in office.
Significance
Hollande’s win was the first victory for a Socialist candidate in a French presidential election since François Mitterrand’s re-election in 1988, and it returned the French left to the Élysée Palace after 17 years. It also made Nicolas Sarkozy the first sitting French president to lose a bid for a second term since Valéry Giscard d’Estaing was defeated by Mitterrand in 1981.
The result carried significance well beyond France. As the second-largest economy in the eurozone, France’s shift toward a government sceptical of German-led austerity altered the balance of the continent’s response to the sovereign-debt crisis then engulfing Greece, Spain, and Italy. Hollande’s calls to add a “growth pact” to the EU’s fiscal treaty foreshadowed tensions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and reshaped debate over the eurozone’s future during 2012 — a year marked across the world’s major powers by leadership change, from Vladimir Putin’s return to the Russian presidency to the U.S. presidential election that November.
Key Facts
- First round: 22 April 2012 — Hollande 28.63%, Sarkozy 27.18%, Le Pen 17.90%, Mélenchon 11.10%; turnout ~79.5%
- Second round: 6 May 2012 — Hollande 51.64% (18,000,668 votes) vs. Sarkozy 48.36% (16,860,685 votes); turnout ~80.3%
- Inauguration: 15 May 2012
- First Socialist president since François Mitterrand’s 1988 re-election
- Sarkozy: first French incumbent to lose re-election since Giscard d’Estaing in 1981
- Context: European debt crisis and the austerity-versus-growth debate
See Also
- European Debt Crisis — 2012 Escalation — the crisis that framed the campaign’s economic debate
- Vladimir Putin — 2012 Return to Presidency — another major 2012 leadership transition among world powers
- 2012 United States Presidential Election — the year’s other pivotal Western democratic contest