Since then, he had been "cohabiting" with a right-wing cabinet led by Prime Minister Édouard Balladur, a member of the neo-Gaullist RPR party.

Then, Jacques Delors decided not to stand as a candidate because he disagreed with the re-alignment on the left orchestrated by new party leader Henri Emmanuelli.

This left the field wide open for numerous potential candidacies: among those who are known to have considered a run, or were strongly urged by others, are Jack Lang, Pierre Joxe, Laurent Fabius, Ségolène Royal and Robert Badinter.

The economy was also still struggling with a depression which began in mid-1990, and the government's policies were widely blamed for both the recession and its slow recovery.

Its new leader Robert Hue campaigned against "king money" and wanted to represent a renewed communism.

He was faced with competition for the far left vote by the Trotskyist candidacy of Arlette Laguiller, who ran for the fourth time.

On the far-right, Jean-Marie Le Pen tried to repeat his surprising result that he obtained in the 1988 presidential election.

His main rival for the far-right vote was Philippe de Villiers, candidate of the eurosceptic parliamentary right.