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European and global affairs are typically downplayed at election time in France, as elsewhere, and a rudimentary observation of the French 2012 presidential elections would appear to confirm this hypothesis. However, this article argues that in the case of the 2012 French elections the issues of ‘Europe’ and ‘the world’ were significant and inextricably linked to many of the ostensibly domestic campaign issues raised by candidates, media and voters. With reference to the campaigns, the broader electoral contexts and the results, the analysis of this apparent paradox suggests how global forces both shaped the 2012 domestic contest in France and constitute a broader picture in which France has been deemed by some commentators to be a ‘flawed democracy’.
