French presidential term shortened

In recent weeks I’ve kept seeing comments that the next presidential election in France will be in 2007, when Le Pen would be 79, which didn’t make sense, since the last election was in 2002, and the term for the French president is seven years. So I googled “France presidency five year seven year” and found out that France passed a constitutional amendment in 2000 shortening the presidential term from the very long seven years to a more conventional five years. Thus it’s not inconceivable that Le Pen, who by all reports is still vigorous, may run for the presidency again. The Brussels Journal discusses Le Pen and other prospective candidates for that election.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 20, 2005 09:51 PM | Send