Was the victory of François Hollande, the Socialist challenger to Nicolas Sarkozy, inevitable in the 2012 French Presidential elections? This book argues that a combination of economic downturn, policy choices and personal unpopularity meant that the Right-wing incumbent faced an almost impossible task in holding onto power for another five years.

1. Introduction 2. Knowns and unknowns: identifying the critical spaces of the 2012 elections 3. Party cooperation and conflict: actors' competitive positioning 4. Candidate selection processes and effects 5. Issues, policy debates and candidate valence 6. Campaign events 7. Polls and VP-functions: forecasting the elections 8. The legislative elections of June 2012 9. Conclusion

Jocelyn Evans is Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds, UK. He has published widely in the fields of French politics, European voting behaviour and the Extreme Right.

Gilles Ivaldi is a Researcher in Political Science with the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the university of Nice, France. His main fields of research include French politics and the study of radical right parties in France and Europe.