Paradoxes of political professionalism

Abstract

The article presents the preliminary phase of party preelection of candidates and the normative requirements they had to meet in order to find themselves on the official list of candidates announced by the Constitutional Council. Then, the official electoral campaign started. The author presents it in relation especially to such program issues as projects for institutional reforms of the Fifth Republic, economic issues, unemployment, and immigration. The main attention is directed at the proposals of the three most important candidates (altogether there were 12 candidates). In the further part, the text refers to the results of the first and second rounds and the campaign between these votings. The election results show that the traditional division - the left versus the right - has been maintained. Of particular importance to the final results was the flow of the electorate from candidates who finished their run for the presidency in the first round.