ABSTRACT
In French electoral history, although it has sometimes been possible for a political party in government to use a successful foreign policy as a means of distracting public attention away from failures in domestic affairs, it was rare for foreign affairs to be the determining factor in an election. There was little chance of a new departure in foreign policy for any candidate who appeared to be a serious challenger before the first ballot in 1995. During the course of the campaign, there was a paradox. It was continually said that questions of foreign policy were being ignored. But this was said so frequently that questions of foreign policy were clearly not being ignored. The pragmatism and hesitations of the electoral period, together with a personal boldness and determination, indicate the highly personalised rather than truly Gaullist characteristics of President Jacques Chirac’s view of foreign affairs once he was in power.
