Candidates and Parties of the Left

Abstract

The institutional logics governing French presidential elections impose competing pressures upon the management of political parties during electoral campaigns. Each candidate must mobilise internal party support while simultaneously meeting the conflicting but requisite demands of personalisation and wider inter-party alliances (see Chapter 3). This chapter examines how candidates on the left managed such competing pressures at the presidential elections of 1995. The first section analyses the evolution of the left from the victory of François Mitterrand in 1981 to the beginning of the 1995 campaign. The second then illustrates the mechanics of candidate selection and the party processes that dictated which candidates emerged or failed to emerge. The final section analyses the dynamics of inter- and intra-party competition on the left throughout the first and second rounds.