Could there have Possibly been Economic Voting?
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At first glance it would appear that the 2002 elections were not about the economy. Issues relating to security and immigration loomed large in the campaign prior to the first round of the presidential elections. In the aftermath of Le Pens surprise finish, French politics were clearly not in a normal state. So the question with which I begin this chapter is how much of an impact did these circumstances that grabbed headlines worldwide have on the subsequent National Assembly elections. Media widely described the left as reeling from the presidential elections and attributed their poor performance in the subsequent parliamentary elections to those events. Were these popular accounts accurate? Was the loss of votes for the incumbent coalition of left-wing parties attributable to what happened in the presidential campaign?