Resumen de France's Left Turn: Mapping the 2012 Elections
In 2012 the Socialist Party (PS) presidential candidate, François Hollande, defeated the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy. The victory was convincing, though not overwhelming. Hollande thus became only the second Socialist president of the Fifth Republic after François Mitterrand. Hollandes success in the presidential contest was reinforced a few weeks later when the PS and immediate allies won an absolute majority of seats in the parliamentary election. The articles in this special issue explore many of the key aspects of both 2012 campaigns: from understanding how Sarkozy could fall so rapidly from grace to examining the extent to which the outcome symbolises a new direction for France, both domestically and internationally.
