On the eve of a crucial electoral deadline for the future of the country, on 10 and 24 April next, the newspaper The cross takes a look in his rearview mirror as he meets former presidential candidates who testify to this unique experience. Through the prism of the human, they come back to the emotion, the fear, the apprehension, or the joy that surrounds an application.
→ LARGE FORMAT. Presidential 2022: abstention, the unknown which worries
Voting day arrives. How do you live this very special day, as a candidate, after having fought for months? The sequence of meetings, trips, meetings have brought their share of fatigue and stress. Then comes the result. Shock, emotion or satisfaction. For one of them, a presidential destiny that materializes. For others, a result to collect.
The endless wait
“The hours preceding the first round are extremely feverish and tense hours”, immediately let go of Noël Mamère, Les Verts candidate in 2002. “It’s not the most pleasant moment”, abounds François Bayrou, MoDem candidate in 2002, 2007 and 2012. And to add: “I don’t know about you, but when you’re waiting for the results of an exam, there’s always a twinge in your heart. »
→ EPISODE 2. Presidential, they tell their campaign: in the spotlight
Realistically, some participants know that their score will not allow them to reach the second round. Nevertheless, their electoral weight in the French political landscape is a source of concern: “That day, I go around the polling stations in my constituency, so the welcome is warm, but the doubt as to the score collected is immense”, says Marie-George Buffet, candidate of the Communist Party in 2007.
Collect the result of the vote
The result comes. And the acceptance of the latter by the candidates. A not easy thing, for Christine Boutin, candidate of the Social Republican Forum, in 2002: “The most painful moment for me was going to see the activists to talk to them. What could I say to them? »
→ READ. Democracy, institutions: what the 2022 presidential candidates say
The 2002 election was special, with the accession, for the first time, of the far-right party, the National Front, to the second round. Everyone remembers it. “Obviously, everything changes in the perception of this democratic issue”, remembers François Bayrou, while trying to assert his score. “I have talks with Jacques Chirac, I tell him: “You are going to do 80%, we need a government of national unity”, will he plead without real success, with the future re-elected president.
The feeling of failure
Of all the candidates interviewed by The cross, only François Hollande, favorite in the polls, will make it to the second round. If some did not have this ambition, the low score collected still haunts some minds. “The day of the result, I said to myself “well I failed”, says Marie-George Buffet. I did not meet the expectation. » On the side of Arlette Laguiller, candidate Lutte Ouvrière from 1974 to 2007, “the polls had prepared for this evidence”. And to tell: “You still expect it a bit, hoping that it won’t be that. »
→ EPISODE 3. Presidential, they tell their campaign: suffer violence
Outsider, François Bayrou says he believed in it. “I thought the second round was within reach,” while expressing some regrets: “And he was. It almost flipped. »
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