In the run-up to the first round of the French presidential election of April 2002, the Socialist party leader and prime minister Lionel Jospin, who has died aged 88, was a firm favourite to become the next leader of France. According to every opinion poll, Jospin would face Jacques Chirac, seeking re-election, in the second round vote and the two candidates were neck and neck.
It would be hard to overestimate the stupefaction and political earthquake when, at precisely 8pm on Sunday 21 April, the results of the first round were announced: Jospin had been knocked into third place by the far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and thus was out of the race.
