1988–2002: The Long Decade of Vindictiveness, Miscalculations, Defeat, Farce, Good Luck, Good Government, and Catastrophe. The Presidency Right or Wrong

Abstract

If we take the period 1988 to 2002 as a whole — Mitterrand’s second term and Chirac’s first term — we see two septennates, one of the left and one of the right, and an almost symmetrical pattern suggestive of the problems of presidentialism. In each case there was an initial thrust of intense enthusiasm, then legislatures that followed on but seemed non-correspondent with the enthusiasm of the presidential election. The legislatures (at least Rocard, Cresson, Bérégovoy, Juppé) brought bathos to government after the excitement of the presidentials. Both septennates also ushered in, before the end of their terms, cohabitations in the wake of enormous presidential unpopularity (1993; 1997); and the governments ushered in (Balladur; Jospin) were enthusiastically received, in inverse proportion to presidential popularity. Both Prime Ministers were expected to win the following presidential election (Balladur, 1995; Jospin, 2002), but both were dramatically cast aside in round one.