The trauma of April 2002 weighed heavily on Sunday’s elections. Left wing voters were determined not to repeat the mistake of the last ballot when they spread their support among several candidates allowing Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front, to sneak through to the second round.

This time, the Socialist Party appealed for a ’vote utile’ (a useful vote) in the first round. They won it. The old adage about French elections that voters support the candidate they most like in the first round and the one they least dislike in the second was disproved.