1 The Construction of a Candidate: “Monsieur X”
The 1965 presidential election was heralded as a decisive moment in French politics: the Gaullists were about to find out just how deeply rooted the Fifth Republic was in their national culture; the opposition parties were forced to show their hand and decide whether they were prepared to accept the very rules they had previously so strongly criticised, but which had met the favour of the public opinion .2 These circumstances, along with the fact that for the first time the Head of State was going to be elected through a direct universal suffrage system, anticipated significant changes, not least in political communication.The central issue of the 1965 presidential election is not the name of the future Head of State because, if de Gaulle decides to run—as it seems—he will most probably be re-elected […] The real question is whether this election marks the first implementation of a system that will continue to be used in the future, or whether it is an isolated and exceptional case with no future.1
The most important and uncertain of these concerned the role television was going to play.
On 14 March 1964 the decree, proposed by the then Minister of Information , Peyrefitte, which defined the rules of the electoral campaign was approved. In particular article 12 allotted two hours of television time and two hours of radio time for each candidate. It was also stipulated that “during the electoral campaign , all candidates must receive equal treatment during news broadcasts on French radio and television […]. Before the first round, each candidate is allotted two hours of television and two hours of radio time.”3
Television had already played a role in French electoral campaigns in 1956; however, in those times, its limited reach—only 3% of French families had a television set—meant that this role was very limited. Party representatives were allowed some airtime, but this was restricted; moreover, the numbers of viewers was relatively small.4 In 1965 this had increased dramatically and about half of French families had a television set.5 Moreover, the end of the government monopoly of this means of communication, combined with the introduction of the new system for the election of the Head of Government, opened up new perspectives and possibilities for television.
The opposition parties—the PCF and the SFIO in particular—had been the real losers of the previous elections in 1962; they had also failed to persuade French people that the proposal of the 28 October referendum was against the Constitution, and that the direct election of the Head of State paired with candidates’ use of television during the electoral campaign represented an anti-democratic procedure. The result of the following elections in November reconfirmed public support for Gaullism and the personalisation of power that characterised the Fifth Republic, rejecting the political coalition that sought a return to the past, in favour of continuation and stability.
If the Left wanted to avoid the political marginalisation they experienced during the first years of the Fifth Republic, it was necessary they adapted to the new political context and to the changes in communication practices that this had brought with it. Even the press (despite by this point having little regard for Gaullism) remarked on the need for the opposition parties to adapt to the personalisation of politics made possible by the increasingly central role played by television in politics. In the aftermath of the 1962 autumn election the following article appeared in L’Express:
This television […] has intrinsic virtues upon which the Left should reflect. […] What is certain is that television is merciless in the way it shows what is out there. Television throws in our faces what the newspaper, the public meeting or the radio merely suggests. Among other things, for example, it has brought to our attention how antiquated party leaders are and how inadequate is their way of communicating in the present political context […]. Television has no time for ...