How would you vote, French style! (1958-2017)

[America Needs R'hllor]

All with hindsight:

1958: Charles de Gaulle (UNR)
1965: François Mitterrand (FGDS), François Mitterrand (FGDS)
1969: Michel Rocard (CDU), Alain Poher (CD)
1974: François Mitterrand (PS), François Mitterrand (PS)
1981: François Mitterrand (PS), François Mitterrand (PS)
1988: François Mitterrand (PS), François Mitterrand (PS)
1995: Lionel Jospin (PS), Lionel Jospin (PS)
2002: François Bayrou (UDF), Jacques Chirac (RPR)
2007: Ségolène Royal (PS), Ségolène Royal (PS)
2012: François Bayrou (MoDem), François Hollande (PS)
2017: Benoît Hamon (PS), Emmanuel Macron (EM)
Tentatively:
2022: Yannick Jadot (EELV)

[Former President tack50]

1965: Francois Mitterrand (FGDS)
1969: Gaston Deferre (SFIO) / Alain Poher (CD)
1974: Francois Mitterrand (PS)
1981: Francois Mitterrand (PS)
1988: Francois Mitterrand (PS)
1995: Lionel Jospin (PS)
2002: Lionel Jospin (PS) / Jacques Chirac (RPR)
2007: Segolene Royal (PS)
2012: Francois Hollande (PS)
2017: Jean Luc Melenchon (FI) / Emmanuel Macron (LREM)

[Grassroots]

Only election I have researched:

2017: Marine Le Pen / Marine Le Pen

[Lechasseur]

1965: Charles de Gaulle (UNR)
1969: Georges Pompidou (UDR)
1974: Jacques Chaban-Delmas (UDR)/Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (RI)
1981: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (UDF)
1988: Jacques Chirac (RPR)
1995: Philippe de Villiers (MPF)/Jacques Chirac (RPR)
2002: Lionel Jospin(PS)/Jacques Chirac (RPR)
2007:  Philippe de Villiers (MPF)/Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP)
2012: Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP)
2017: François Fillon (LR) /Emmanuel Macron (EM)

If you like De Villiers and Fillon, I don't think you would have backed Chaban-Delmas in 1974. Chaban-Delmas lost a large chunk of his MPs (including Chirac) and voters to Giscard that year because he was seen as too liberal (like he wanted a French "Great Society").

A conservative could have broken with Giscard in 1981 and vote Chirac in the first round, but in 1974 Giscard was clearly the conservative candidate.

I can see how that makes sense. To be honest my support for Villiers is based on mostly two factors, his Eurosceptic views and some personal connections to Vendée. I also figured that Chaban-Delmas would have been more Eurosceptic than Giscard. I didn't really know about the French 'Great Society' idea so I probably would have backed Giscard in both rounds then, as I do like him.

Chaban-Delmas probably was more Eurosceptic, and by the 1980s Euroscepticism was the main difference between the RPR and the UDF. While the UDF had always been mainly pro-European (even though you had some Eurosceptics in the party like Philippe de Villiers), the RPR started off as Eurosceptic and progressively came to be pro-European as well, with Chirac having come to embrace the European project by the early 1990s.

And essentially that's why the UDF disappeared as a major force after 1995 and mostly merged with the RPR to create the UMP in 2002: Chirac had finally won the fight against Giscard and the only real difference between the parties at that point was sociological (with the UDF generally being more UMC and more Catholic). There was no longer any political reason for them to be two different parties.

[beaver2.0]

1965-present: Jacques Cheminade

[beaver2.0]

1965: Jean Lecanuet (Popular Republican Movement)
1969: Alain Poher (Democratic Center)
1974: René Dumont (Independent environmentalist)
1981: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (Union for French Democracy)
1988: Raymond Barre (Union for French Democracy)
1995: Jacques Cheminade (European Workers' Party)
2002: Jean Saint-Josse (Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions)
2007: Frédéric Nihous (Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions)
2012: Jacques Cheminade (Solidarity and Progress)
2017: Jean Lasalle (Résistons!)

[Former President tack50]

1965: Francois Mitterrand (FGDS)
1969: Gaston Deferre (SFIO) / Alain Poher (CD)
1974: Francois Mitterrand (PS)
1981: Francois Mitterrand (PS)
1988: Francois Mitterrand (PS)
1995: Lionel Jospin (PS)
2002: Lionel Jospin (PS) / Jacques Chirac (RPR)
2007: Segolene Royal (PS)
2012: Francois Hollande (PS)
2017: Jean Luc Melenchon (FI) / Emmanuel Macron (LREM)

After a bit of thinking and what not I think in 2017 round 1 I'd now vote for Hamon, not for Melenchon. Still Macron round 2.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

1965   François Mitterand (FGDS)→François Mitterand (FGDS)
1969   Michel Rocard (PSU)→Alain Poher (CD)
1974   François Mitterand (PS)→François Mitterand (PS)
1981   François Mitterand (PS)→François Mitterand (PS)
1988   François Mitterand (PS)→François Mitterand (PS)
1995   Lionel Jospin (PS)→Lionel Jospin (PS)
2002   Lionel Jospin (PS)→Jaques Chirac (RPR)
2007   Ségolène Royal (PS)→Ségolène Royal (PS)
2012   François Hollande (PS)→François Hollande (PS)
2017   Benoît Hamon (PS)→Emanuel Macron (EM)