Whilst the PCF was the main force of this coalition (at least in terms of popular support), they united behind the candidacy of the PS leader François Mitterrand.

Arlette Laguiller from Workers' Struggle became the first female candidate on the ballot paper for a French presidential election.

Chaban-Delmas conveyed an image of being a reformist Gaullist and invoked his proposals for a "New Society", which he had tried to apply when he led the cabinet (from 1969 to 1972), but he was supported by the "Barons of Gaullism" who held the bulk of ministerial offices for 16 years.

Giscard d'Estaing portrayed himself as "the change in the continuity", a "modern turn" for the French politics, in the incumbent majority and more reassuring for moderate voters than the Common Program which was characterised as a collectivist project.

Indeed, 43 Gaullist personalities close to Pompidou and led by the young Interior Minister Jacques Chirac published an appeal insinuating that Giscard d'Estaing was more likely than Chaban-Delmas to defeat Mitterrand.

Mitterrand presented his competitor as the representing of the elites who pursued unfair policies, while Giscard d'Estaing criticized his opponent to be "a man of the past".