1974 French presidential election
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| Turnout | 84.23% (first round) 87.33% (second round) | |||||||||||||||
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Presidential elections were held in France in 1974, following the death of President Georges Pompidou. They went to a second round, and were won by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing by a margin of 1.6%. It is to date the closest presidential election in French history.
Campaign
In 1969, Georges Pompidou, formerly Prime Minister under the presidency of Charles de Gaulle, was elected President of France for a seven-year term. However, he died in office on 2 April 1974, and the French voters were called to elect his successor. The political classes were caught unawares by Pompidou's death.
On the Left, the
The situation in the "Presidential Majority" was very confused: no "natural candidate" had appeared. Prime Minister
Chaban-Delmas conveyed an image of being a reformist Gaullist and invoked his proposals for a "New Society", which he had tried to apply when he led the cabinet (from 1969 to 1972), but he was supported by the "Barons of Gaullism" who held the bulk of ministerial offices for 16 years. His challengers denounced the continuation of the UDR-state, that is to say the appropriation of the state by the Gaullist Party.
Giscard d'Estaing portrayed himself as "the change in the continuity", a "modern turn" for the French politics, in the incumbent majority and more reassuring for moderate voters than the Common Program which was characterised as a
For the first time in the history of the French presidential elections, a Radio-TV-debate between the two finalists was organized. Mitterrand presented his competitor as the representing of the elites who pursued unfair policies, while Giscard d'Estaing criticized his opponent to be "a man of the past". The turnout reached a record of over 87% and Giscard was elected with a margin of only 424,599 votes. He nominated Chirac as Prime Minister.
Result
| Candidate | Party | First round | Second round | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
Jean-Claude Sebag | European Federalist Movement | 42,007 | 0.16 | |||
| Guy Héraud | European federalist | 19,255 | 0.08 | |||
| Total | 25,538,636 | 100.00 | 26,367,807 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 25,538,636 | 99.08 | 26,367,807 | 98.66 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 237,107 | 0.92 | 356,788 | 1.34 | ||
| Total votes | 25,775,743 | 100.00 | 26,724,595 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 30,602,953 | 84.23 | 30,600,775 | 87.33 | ||
| Source: Constitutional Court, Constitutional Court | ||||||
See also
Further reading
- Bell, David. François Mitterrand: A Political Biography (Polity, 2005).
- Berstein, Serge, Sergej Natanovič Bernstejn, and Jean-Pierre Rioux. The Pompidou Years, 1969–1974 (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
- Criddle, Byron. "The French presidential election." The World Today 30.6 (1974): 231–238. online
- Hayward, Jack, and Vincent Wright. "'Les deux France' the French presidential election of May 1974." Parliamentary Affairs 27.1974 (1974): 208–236.
