The twists and turns of France’s strangest ever presidential election
by Jon Henley European affairs correspondent from World news | The Guardian on (#2M187)
With the sitting first-term president not standing and the mainstream parties knocked out in the first round, this race has been unlike any before it
The campaign to elect the Fifth Republic's eighth president has also been modern France's most remarkable: a rollercoaster ride of upsets, about-turns, game-changers and historic firsts.
The outgoing first-term president, Franiois Hollande, did not stand. Other big names such as Alain Juppi(C) and Nicolas Sarkozy also fell by the wayside. For the first time, France's traditional mainstream parties did not reach the runoff.
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