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"In May 2012, French voters rejected the liberalizing policies of Nicholas Sarkozy and elected his opponent, the Socialist Franðcois Hollande, president. In June 2012, the incumbent president's center-right UMP party was swept out of government in the ensuing parliamentary elections, giving way to a new center-left majority in the National Assembly. This book analyzes the contexts and results of the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections in France. It assesses the legacies of the Sarkozy presidency that informed the 2012 electoral campaigns, scrutinizing his domestic social and economic policies on the one hand and European and foreign policies on the other. In turn, the elections' outcomes are also analyzed from the standpoint of various political parties and other institutional interests in France, and the results are situated within the broader run of French political history. Finally, the book examines the principal challenges facing the Hollande administration and new government of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, and assesses how effectively these have been met during their first year in office"--Provided by publisher.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction Gabriel Goodliffe PART I: THE PRESIDENCY Chapter 1. The Fifth Republic and its Presidents
Jean-François Sirinelli Chapter 2. Socialists in the Elysée Palace: from Mitterrand to Hollande
Marco Gervasoni Chapter 3. The TV-Presidency: From de Gaulle's 'Télécratie' to Hollande's 'Normal Presidency'
Riccardo Brizzi PART II: THE POLITICAL PARTIES Chapter 4. The UMP after Sarkozy
Florence Haegel Chapter 5. The Year of the Rose: The Socialist Victory of 2012
Gérard Grunberg Chapter 6. The Pyrrhic Victory of the Radical Left
Philippe Buton Chapter 7. In Search of the Center
Gilles Le Béguec Chapter 8. The Resurgence of the Front National
Gabriel Goodliffe PART III: THE ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN AND HOLLANDE'S CHALLENGES Chapter 9. Hollande's Economic Agenda
Jacques Fayette Chapter 10. Europe in the 2012 French Presidential Election
Renaud Dehousse and Angela Tacea Chapter 11. Hollande and Sarkozy's Foreign Policy Legacy
Frédéric Charillon Chapter 12. Immigration and the 2012 Elections in France
Ariane Chebel d'Apollonia Conclusion: Assessing the Hollande Presidency One Year into Office
Riccardo Brizzi Bibliography
Index
About the author
Gabriel Goodliffe teaches international relations and political economy at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.
Riccardo Brizzi teaches contemporary history in the Department of Political and Social Science at the University of Bologna.
Summary
In May 2012, French voters rejected the liberalizing policies of Nicholas Sarkozy & elected his opponent, the Socialist Francois Hollande, president. This book analyzes the context & results of the French 2012 presidential & parliamentary elections & sets out the principal challenges facing the new administration & government in their wake.
