Presidential election in France 1974

The 1974 French presidential election took place on May 5 and 19, 1974 after Georges Pompidou died. The bourgeois candidate Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was just able to prevail.

Starting position

Georges Pompidou had actually been elected for a seven-year term in 1969, but died on April 2, 1974. The political camps were not prepared for an election after the sudden death of the president. As agreed in 1972, the left parties Parti socialiste (social democratic), Parti communiste français (communist) and Parti radical de gauche (social liberal) put forward a joint candidate with François Mitterrand . The communists were actually considered to be the strongest left force at the time; but an agreement was reached on the socialist Mitterrand, because a communist would probably not have had a majority. In the 1965 election , Mitterrand surprisingly got into the runoff election against de Gaulle . Only three left splinter parties did not support the candidate.

With Jacques Chaban-Delmas , Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Jean Royer three candidates ran for the Conservatives . For the first time, the most important candidates faced a debate on the radio.

Results

First round

candidate	be right	proportion of
François Mitterrand	11,044,373	43.25%
Valery Giscard d'Estaing	8,326,774	32.60%
Jacques Chaban-Delmas	3,857,728	15.11%
Jean Royer	810.540	3.17%
Arlette Laguiller	595.247	2.33%
René Dumont	337,800	1.32%
Jean-Marie Le Pen	190.921	0.75%
Émile Muller	176.279	0.69%
Alain Krivine	93,990	0.37%
Bertrand Renouvin	43,722	0.17%
Jean-Claude Sebag	42.007	0.16%
Guy Héraud	19,255	0.08%

Right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen ran for president for the first time. With less than one percent of the vote, he had no chance. Between 1988 and 2007 he ran four more times and always received more than ten percent of the vote. In the 2002 election he even reached the second round.

Second round

Second round results: Blau Giscard d'Estaing; red center edge

candidate	be right	proportion of
Valery Giscard d'Estaing	13,396,203	50.81%
François Mitterrand	12,971,604	49.19%

With a record turnout, Giscard d'Estaing was just able to prevail against Mitterrand. However, he only held the presidency for one term (until 1981) and was then replaced by Mitterrand.

Web links

• Soirée électorale, 1 tour election broadcast on May 5, 1974, Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA) (French)

Individual evidence

1. ^ The results of the first round on the website of the Constitutional Council
2. ^ The results of the second round on the website of the Constitutional Council