Behind the Polling–Booth Curtain and beyond Simple Speculations: Toward a Causal Model of Far–Right Voting Behaviour Some Evidence from French Presidential Elections of 2002

Abstract

The electoral surge of the National Front (NF) in the 2002 French presidential election was unprecedented. It marked the first time that a far–right candidate reached the second round of voting in a presidential election: Jean–Marie Le Pen, leader of the NF party, passed the first round on April 21, 2002, beating 16 other candidates with 16.86 per cent of the vote against 19.88 per cent for the incumbent President Jacques Chirac (Rassemblement pour la République RPR) and 16.18 per cent for the incumbent Prime Minister Lionel Jospin (Parti Socialiste PS).