Chirac (left, in physical position only) and Le Pen (far right)
May 5, 2002: The people of France have voted themselves into a corner: Either the incumbent President, too conservative for most of the country's people, will win another term in the runoff election; or the 2nd-place candidate in the 1st round will be the new President -- and he's practically a Nazi.
In a multi-party election, the 1st round ended with the incumbent President, Jacques Chirac, and his party, the conservative Rally for the Republic, essentially the successor to Charles de Gaulle's party, getting 19.9 percent of the vote; while Jean-Marie Le Pen, of the far-right National Front, got 16.9 percent; and the incumbent Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, of the leftist Socialist Party, got 16.2 percent.
Had Jospin gotten 194,601 more votes, he would have finished 2nd, and would have faced Chirac, seen as his longtime rival, in the runoff. Instead, it came down to Chirac, a conservative, against Le Pen, a right-wing fanatic. France, a country only 58 years past occupation by the Nazis, was shaken to its core.
Spontaneous street protests began on April 21, and grew nightly, until May 1: Le Pen's annual May Day march got 20,000 people in Paris, but the anti-Le Pen forces got 500,000.
On May 5, Le Pen reached a "ceiling" of 17.8 percent, while everybody else rallied behind Chirac, including a lot of people who previously couldn't stand him, and he got 82.2 percent, and another 5 years. He served out that term, did not run again in 2007, and died in 2019.
Le Pen finished 4th in the 1st round with 10 percent of the vote in 2007, and a distant 3rd with 18 in 2012. For 2017, he handed control of the party over to his daughter, Marion "Marine" Le Pen, and she finished 2nd with 21 percent, to Emmanuel Macron's 24. In the runoff, she came closer than her father ever did, getting 34 percent to Macron's 66. In 2022, she came closer still: Losing 28-24 to Macron in the 1st round, and 58 to 42 in the runoff. Each time, resistance to the Le Pens' fascism was reduced, but was enough to keep them out of power.
UPDATE: Jean-Marie Le Pen died in 2025. Less than 3 months later, Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzling European Union funds, and was banned from running for office in France for 5 years, mening she will be ineligible in 2027.
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May 5, 2002 was a Tuesday. Unlike America's Election Day, France's doesn't always fall on a Tuesday, but it did this time.
These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Seattle Mariners, 10-6 at Yankee Stadium. Joel Piñero outpitched David Wells. Once-and-future Yankee Rubén Sierra went 3-for-5 with a home run and 4 RBIs for the Mariners. Bernie Williams hit 2 home runs.
* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 12-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. Roy Oswalt was the winning pitcher, while Al Leiter only lasted 4 innings. Lance Berkman went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs and 5 RBIs.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies, 7-4 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-2 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 2-0 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Frank Castillo pitched 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and and Ugeth Urbina completed the 4-hit shutout. Nomar Garciaparra hit a home run.
* The Anaheim Angels beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-2 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 9-2 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.
* The Florida Marlins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-4 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-6 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Greg Maddux outpitched Darryl Kile. Within a few weeks, Kile would be dead of a heart attack.
* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Montreal Expos, 5-2 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium).
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. How many Cubs does it take to pitch a 4-hit shutout? This time, 4: Matt Clement, no hits over 4 innings; Ron Mahay, 2 over an inning and 1/3rd, and officially the winning pitcher; Joe Borowski; 1 over an inning and 1/3rd; Jeff Fassero, none over 2/3rds; and Antonio Alfonseca, 1 over an inning and 1/3rd.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5 at Pacific Bell Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco. Benito Santiago singled J.T. Snow home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Barry Bonds hit his 577th home run.
Football was out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA Playoffs:
* The New Jersey Nets beat the Charlotte Hornets, 99-93 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Boston Celtics, 96-84 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 86-80 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.
There was 1 game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1 at the Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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