This is the election that overshadows all the others: the French presidential election will take place on April 10 and 24, 2022. We will then know if Emmanuel Macron wins for a second term or if the Elysee will find a ninth tenant. For so far eight presidents of the Republic have succeeded each other since the election of the president by universal suffrage was established.
April 2, 1974: The French learn of the death of their president Georges Pompidou whose long illness had been hidden from them. On the right there is the Gaullist candidate Jacques Chaban-Delmas and especially a four-year-old who chooses to campaign in the center, Valery Giscard d’Estaing. He is facing the candidate of the “common program” that brings together the entire left, socialists and communists: François Mitterrand.
Mitterrand-Giscard, this is a duel that goes down in history, and the capital H is not overused. The left believes in it hard as iron, convinced to hold its first victory since the Popular Front. But in the face of Mitterrand, Giscard manages to unite the entire right: both candidates understand that the election will be played at the center, among the undecided. Giscard will prevail at the end of the suspense on the wire: 50.8% of the votes…
For the first time, the two finalists faced each other in a televised debate during the inter-round. Giscard’s phrase entered the caption: “You do not have, Mr. Mitterrand, the monopoly of the heart”…
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