2012 French Open – Men's singles final, Post-match reactions
Nadal's Lifetime Coach, Toni Nadal: "For us, it was very important to win here now against Djokovic, because we knew that if he won again, the fourth one, then (Rafa) completing a Grand Slam of losses would have been ugly, and we were very close to doing that."


2012 French Open – Mixed Doubles
Casey Dellacqua and Scott Lipsky were the defending champions. Dellacqua chose not to participate this year while Lipsky partnered with Vladimíra Uhlířová, but they were defeated in the first round by Virginie Razzano and Nicolas Devilder. Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi won the tournament defeating Klaudia Jans-Ignacik of Poland and Santiago González of Mexico 7–6(7–3), 6–1 in the final.


2012 French Open – Wheelchair Men's Doubles
Shingo Kunieda and Nicolas Peifer were the defending champion but Peifer withdrew due to a right hand injury. Kunieda played alongside Frédéric Cattaneo and won the title, defeating Michael Jeremiasz and Stefan Olsson in the final, 3–6, 7–6(7–3), [10–6]


2012 French Open – Wheelchair Men's Singles
Maikel Scheffers was the defending champion but lost to Shingo Kunieda in the first round. Stéphane Houdet defeated Kunieda 6–2, 2–6, 7–6(8–6) in the final to win the tournament.


2012 French Open – Wheelchair Women's Doubles
Esther Vergeer and Sharon Walraven were the defending champion but they decided not to participate together. Vergeer played alongside Marjolein Buis, while Walraven partnered up with Annick Sevenans. Buis and Vergeer won the final 6–0, 6–1 against Sabine Ellerbrock and Yui Kamiji.


2012 French Open – Wheelchair Women's Singles
Esther Vergeer successfully defended her title, defeating Aniek van Koot in the final 6–0, 6–0.


2012 French Open – Women's Doubles
Andrea Hlaváčková and Lucie Hradecká were the defending champions, but lost in the semifinals to Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova.


2012 French Open – Women's Doubles
Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci won the tournament, defeating Kirilenko and Petrova in the final 4–6, 6–4, 6–2.


2012 French Open – Women's Legends Doubles
Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis were the defending champions and defended their title, defeating Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotná in the final, 6–4, 6–4.


2012 French Open – Women's Legends Doubles, Draw, Group A
Standings are determined by: 1) Number of wins; 2) Number of matches; 3) In three-players-ties, percentage of sets won, or of games won; 4) Steering Committee decision.


2012 French Open – Women's Legends Doubles, Draw, Group B
Standings are determined by: 1) Number of wins; 2) Number of matches; 3) In three-players-ties, percentage of sets won, or of games won; 4) Steering Committee decision.


2012 French Open – Women's Singles
Maria Sharapova defeated Sara Errani in the final, 6–3, 6–2 to win the Women's Singles tennis title at the 2012 French Open. This was Sharapova's first French Open title and she completed the career Grand Slam. It was her first Grand Slam since winning the 2008 Australian Open and her first since major shoulder surgery which threatened to end her career four years prior. Sharapova only lost one set the entire tournament, to Klára Zakopalová in the fourth round.


2012 French Open – Women's Singles
Li Na was the defending champion, but lost in the fourth round to qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova, the first time a defending champion was defeated by a qualifier in the tournament's history.


2012 French Open – Women's Singles
The tournament was notable for one of the biggest upsets in recent years as World No. 111 Virginie Razzano beat World No. 5 and 2002 champion Serena Williams in the first round despite Williams having two match points at 5–1 on a second set tiebreak. Razzano became only the 2nd player ranked outside the top 100 after Sun Tiantian at the  2005 China Open to defeat Williams in a main draw match. It was the first time Williams lost in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament.


2012 French Open – Women's Singles
Sharapova regained the WTA no. 1 ranking for the first time in four years by reaching the final, after Victoria Azarenka lost in the fourth round. All of the top three seeds (Azarenka, Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwańska) were in contention for the No. 1 ranking at the start of the tournament.


2012 French Open – Women's Singles
It was also the Grand Slam main draw debut of the future French Open semifinalists, future World No. 1 Karolína Plíšková and future World No. 4 Kiki Bertens.


2012 French Open – Women's Singles, Seeds
Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.


2012 French Road Cycling Cup
The 2012 French Road Cycling Cup was the 21st edition of the French Road Cycling Cup and was won by Samuel Dumoulin.


2012 French Road Cycling Cup
Compared to the previous edition, two new events were added to the calendar, namely the Classic Loire Atlantique and the Route Adélie. The defending champion from 2011 was Tony Gallopin.


2012 French Road Cycling Cup, Final standings, Individual
Note: only French riders and riders of French teams are eligible to score points


2012 French Super Series
The 2012 French Super Series is a top level badminton competition which took place from October 23, 2012 to October 28, 2012 in Paris, France. It was the tenth BWF Super Series competition on the 2012 BWF Super Series schedule. The total purse for the event was $200,000.


2012 French legislative election
Legislative elections took place on 10 and 17 June 2012 (and on other dates for small numbers of voters outside metropolitan France) to select the members of the 14th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic – a little over a month after the French presidential election run-off held on 6 May.


2012 French legislative election
All 577 single member seats in the assembly, including those representing overseas departments and territories and French residents overseas, were contested using a two-round system.


2012 French legislative election, Background, Presidential election
The elections came a month after the presidential election won by François Hollande of the Socialist Party. Since 2002, legislative elections immediately follow the presidential ones. This was designed to limit the possibility of a cohabitation, whereby the President and his or her Prime Minister, backed by a parliamentary majority, would be of opposite parties. The aim was also to give the new president and his government a "double mandate", the election of the President being followed by that of a parliamentary majority enabling him to implement his policies. This is what happened in 2002 and 2007.


2012 French legislative election, Background, Presidential election
Thus, in 2012, the Socialist Party has asked French citizens to "confirm" the result of the presidential election; Hollande's campaign director Pierre Moscovici argued it would not make sense to have elected a President only for him to be rendered "powerless" by the legislative election: "This President tomorrow must have a majority with which to govern". By contrast, the Union for a Popular Movement, on the right, has repeatedly asked that the left not be given "all the powers" through this election. The legislative elections in France are often described as the "third round" of the presidential election.


2012 French legislative election, Background, Ethnic and gender pluralism
In order to make possible the election of some candidates of non-European ethnic background (North African, Subsaharan African and West Indian) as well as for female candidates, the Socialist Party had, like in 2007, reserved several constituencies for them, 22 for ethnic minorities and 49% for women.


2012 French legislative election, Background, Ethnic and gender pluralism
At the end of the second round, there were 13 metropolitan deputies with non-European ethnic background, including two government members (Kader Arif, former Euro MP, and George Pau-Langevin, already deputy since 2007) who will be replaced by their alternate candidates:


2012 French legislative election, Background, Ethnic and gender pluralism
Among the 11 deputies who represent French citizens abroad, one is from Réunion, Corine Narassiguin (PS), another has Chilean roots, Sergio Coronado (EELV) and a third one has Iranian roots, Pouria Amirshahi (PS).


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system
A total of 6,603 candidates ran for the 577 seats, an average of 11 per constituency. Some 40% are women. The law mandates that every party must have between 49 and 51% of women among its candidates, or have their public funding significantly reduced. "Some parties, among the richest, prefer to pay the fine" rather than comply with this rule, according to Libération. The law also does not take electability into account, and significant numbers of women candidates run in constituencies where their party does not stand a real chance.


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system
French expatriates elected their own MPs for the first time – voting early, from 23 to 26 May or on 2 or 3 June for the first round and from 6 to 12 June or on 16 or 17 June for the second, depending on their location and the method by which they cast their ballot. If an expatriate votes via the Internet, he or she has a week to do so from 23 to 26 May.


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system
A postal ballot may be cast, if received by 31 May in the Americas or by 1 June in the rest of the world. Those who prefer to vote in person in their local consulate must do so on 2 June in the Americas or 3 June in the rest of the world.


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system, The two-round system
Each of the 577 constituencies elects one representative to the National Assembly, in a two-round election. A candidate is elected in the first round if he or she obtains an absolute majority of the vote in his or her constituency and the votes of at least one quarter of all registered voters in the constituency. If a large number of voters abstain, an absolute majority of the vote may thus not be enough, although this rarely happens.


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system, The two-round system
(In the 2012 election, one surprising example was in Martinique's 3rd constituency, where incumbent MP Serge Letchimy of the Martinican Progressive Party received 63.29% of the vote, but narrowly failed to be immediately elected due to a very low turnout (30.67%).) If no candidate is elected in the first round, then the two candidates who finished first and second in the first round advance automatically to the second for a runoff.


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system, The two-round system
They may be joined by the third- or even fourth-placed candidate; the second round is open to any candidate who has obtained the votes of at least 12.5% of registered voters in the constituency. Low turnouts therefore decrease the likelihood of a three-person runoff (known in France as a triangulaire). In the second round, the candidate who obtains the most votes is elected; an absolute majority is not required. (In the unlikely event of a tie, the elder of the tied candidates is elected.)


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system, The two-round system
Candidates who advance to the second round have the option of withdrawing. Usually this happens in a triangulaire, where the party and/or candidate that finished third in the first round prefers to favour one of the two leading candidates. In the 2012 election, for example, third-placed UMP candidate Roland Chassain in the Bouches-du-Rhônes's 16th constituency withdrew in order to help the National Front candidate defeat the Socialist candidate.


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system, The two-round system
In addition, the parties of the mainstream left (Socialist, Greens, Left Front, Radical Party of the Left, various smaller parties) have a long-standing agreement whereby they do not stand against one another in the second round. If two of them advance to the second round in the same constituency, the less-well-placed of the two automatically withdraws. In some cases, this means a triangulaire is avoided, and the left is united against a single right-wing candidate.


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system, The two-round system
In the 2012 election, for example, in the Hauts-de-Seine's 11th constituency, incumbent MP and Left Front candidate Marie-Hélène Amiable narrowly finished second (29.20%) behind Socialist candidate Julie Sommaruga (29.93%). Amiable withdrew, supporting Sommaruga in her runoff against New Centre candidate Jean-Loup Metton, who had finished third in the first round with enough support to advance to the second (24.15%). In other cases, this rule means that only one candidate remains in the "second round".


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system, The two-round system
Thus, Socialist Najia Amzal withdrew in favour of Left Front candidate and incumbent MP Marie-George Buffet in Seine-Saint-Denis's 4th constituency; Left Front candidate Patrick Le Hyaric withdrew in favour of Socialist candidate Élisabeth Guigou in Seine-Saint-Denis's 6th constituency; Left Front candidate and incumbent MP Pierre Gosnat withdrew in favour of Citizen and Republican Movement candidate Jean-Luc Laurent in the Val-de-Marne's 10th constituency; and Green candidate Stéphane Gatignon withdrew in front of the Left Front's incumbent MP François Asensi in Seine-Saint-Denis's 4th constituency. In all these cases, no candidate of the right, centre or far right had reached the second round, meaning that the best-placed and sole remaining left-wing candidate was guaranteed to be elected in a one-person "runoff".


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system, Redistricting
The Constitutional Council approved in 2010 the first redistricting of electoral boundaries since 1986 to reflect France's changing demographics. The population ratio between the most populated and least populated constituencies was reduced from 1:3.6 to 1:2. A study by Regards Citoyens indicated that the number of seats increased in areas held by the centre-right coalition led by then governing UMP at the expense of the Socialist-led opposition coalition.


2012 French legislative election, Electoral system, Redistricting
Officially, the dual purpose of the redistricting was to ensure a more equal number of voters per constituency, but also to provide seats in the National Assembly to French citizens resident overseas. Thirty-three constituencies were abolished, and thirty-three new ones created. Of the latter, nineteen were in France, while the rest of the world was divided into eleven constituencies for French residents overseas.


2012 French legislative election, Parties, Main parties and their aims
The Socialist Party sought to obtain a parliamentary majority with which to implement its policies. Three possible scenarios could have occurred if the left won overall:


2012 French legislative election, Parties, Main parties and their aims
The Union for a Popular Movement officially aimed to win the election. Its primary stated aim, however, was to obtain enough seats to prevent the left from having the 3/5ths Congress majority which would enable it to adopt constitutional reforms (such as granting the right to vote to foreign residents in local elections). The UMP's task was complicated by the popularity of the far-right National Front, which the polls indicated could obtain enough support to reach the second round in a large number of constituencies, thus splitting the right-wing vote. (Under French electoral law, in legislative elections, a third party advances to the second round if it obtains the votes of at least 12.5% of registered voters – i.e., including those who abstain.)


2012 French legislative election, Parties, Main parties and their aims
The Left Front aimed to have a sizable group in Parliament, with which to have meaningful influence on the policies of the Socialist government.


2012 French legislative election, Parties, Main parties and their aims
The National Front aimed to obtain seats in the Assembly; it had none prior to the election. A secondary aim was to "sow chaos in the UMP" by maintaining candidates in the second round and thus causing the UMP potentially to lose seats. The National Front's stated aim was eventually to replace the UMP as the main party of the right – though opinion polls credit the UMP with at least 209 seats, and the National Front with 8 at most, possibly none at all.


2012 French legislative election, Parties, Main parties and their aims
Europe Ecology – The Greens aimed to form an official parliamentary group, which requires having fifteen members in the Assembly. It had only three members prior to the election.


2012 French legislative election, Parties, Main parties and their aims
The Democratic Movement aimed to preserve its three seats, although its earlier ambitions were much higher. Opinion polls suggest the party may disappear from the Assembly completely, and is unlikely to obtain any additional seats.


2012 French legislative election, Parties, Main parties and their aims
In all, twelve parties or alliances stood more than a hundred candidates. The Socialist Party had 459 candidates, and endorsed candidates of allied parties in other constituencies. The UMP had 501 candidates, and endorsed candidates of allied parties (most notably the New Centre) in 69 other constituencies. The Left Front had 531 candidates. Europe Ecologie-The Greens had 465. Marine Le Pen's "Marine Blue Gathering" had 571 candidates, and was thus present in all but six constituencies. Most of these candidates were members of the National Front; others were from small, allied extreme right parties. François Bayrou's "Centre for France" alliance had 340 candidates, most of whom were members of the Democratic Movement. Also standing over a hundred candidates were:


2012 French legislative election, Parties, UMP position on the National Front
With the prospect of National Front candidates reaching the second round alongside the mainstream candidates of the left and right in a number of constituencies, the Socialist Party announced that it would withdraw its candidate from the second round in those constituencies, if and only if it appeared that the National Front candidate had a realistic prospect of winning. In such cases, the Socialists would support the UMP candidate as part of a "republican front" against the far right. The UMP, by contrast, refrained from saying it would withdraw and support a Socialist candidate in those same circumstances.


2012 French legislative election, Parties, UMP position on the National Front
Instead, 64% of UMP voters said they would favour an alliance between their own party and the extreme right for the legislative election. Leading figures of the UMP rejected the possibility. Chantal Jouanno said she was worried it might be under consideration, leading party leader Jean-François Copé to assure her publicly "there will never be an alliance with the National Front". Two days before the first round, Alain Juppé called upon party members to resist the "temptation" of local alliances with the far right, arguing on "moral", "pragmatic" and "tactical grounds", highlighting ideological and policy incompatibility and the National Front's stated aim to "break" and replace the UMP.


2012 French legislative election, Parties, UMP position on the National Front
The day after the first round, the UMP officially announced its position. The party told its candidates not to withdraw if they had entered the second round in third place behind a Socialist candidate and a candidate of the National Front. In addition, in constituencies where the second round was a runoff between the left and the National Front, the UMP would not support either candidate. Roland Chassain, UMP candidate in the Bouches-du-Rhônes's 16th constituency, immediately disobeyed the party line, announcing he was withdrawing from the second round and supporting the National Front candidate.


2012 French legislative election, Parties, UMP position on the National Front
He explained that he considered himself "closer to Marine Le Pen than to the Socialist Party". In the Gard's 2nd constituency, third-placed UMP candidate Etienne Mourrut also publicly considered defying party instructions and withdrawing in favour of National Front candidate Gilbert Collard. Ultimately, he decided to comply with party instructions and remain in the race.


2012 French legislative election, Parties, UMP position on the National Front
Simultaneously, Nadine Morano (UMP), government minister from 2008 and 2012, asked National Front voters in her constituency to support her on the grounds of the "shared values" between the right and the far right, while UMP mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi stated that the UMP has "no common values" with the Socialist Party. On 12 June, Morano published an interview in the far right newspaper Minute, calling for "as large a gathering as possible of the right". Another UMP candidate, Jean-Paul Garraud, stated that his party and the National Front had "common beliefs", a statement which was criticised by Alain Juppé as being "in total contradiction" with the stated position of the UMP.


2012 French legislative election, Parties, UMP position on the National Front
Martine Aubry, the leader of the Socialist Party, said that her party, by contrast, would support candidates of the right against the far right, as a "Republican principle". In Vaucluse's 3rd constituency, she therefore asked Socialist candidate Catherine Arkilovitch, who had entered the second round in third place (21.98%), to withdraw and support second-placed UMP candidate Jean-Michel Ferrand (30.03%), so as to help defeat National Front candidate Marion Marechal-Le Pen (34.63%). Arkilovitch, however, defied her party and refused to withdraw.


2012 French legislative election, Parties, UMP position on the National Front
Pierre Moscovici, Socialist Minister of Finance, stated on 12 June that the UMP had lost its way and its values and no longer knew what it stood for, in response to its position on the National Front. Later that same day, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault accused the UMP of "preparing a strategic alliance with the National Front", adding: "I think it was underway with Nicolas Sarkozy, but now the UMP really is at a turning point".


2012 French legislative election, Campaign
The official campaign began, in metropolitan France, on 21 May. In every constituency, each candidate has a billboard outside every polling station, upon which to display a campaign poster. Campaign material is also distributed by candidates' supporters in the streets and in letterboxes, and many campaign posters are illegally displayed in the streets. Transmitting campaign material to voters by e-mail is, however, prohibited.


2012 French legislative election, Campaign
Nationwide, parties represented in the National Assembly prior to the election (i.e., the Union for a Popular Movement, the Socialist, Radical, Citizen and Miscellaneous Left parliamentary group, the Democratic and Republican Left parliamentary group, and the New Centre) have the right to broadcast campaign clips on television; an hour and a half is provided for the outgoing parliamentary majority, and an hour and a half for the outgoing opposition. Each side distributes this time as it sees fit between its constituent parties. Parties which are not represented in Parliament but which are standing at least 75 candidates are entitled to seven minutes of broadcast each. Any campaigning whatsoever is forbidden on the eve of the election.


2012 French legislative election, Campaign
The leaflets of the candidates for the French nationals abroad (Français établis à l'étranger) seats were published online on the website of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall
The election was won by the left, providing the new government with an absolute parliamentary majority. The parties of the presidential majority together have 55.97% of seats; with the Left Front providing them with supply and confidence. Among the 577 members of the Assembly, 234 were new. A record number of women were elected: 155 (26.86%). Turnout was 57.23%, a record low.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall
Wallis and Futuna's single constituency had the highest turnout of any French electorate during the first round on 10 June, with 78% voter participation.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
The Socialist Party (along with a small number of affiliated miscellaneous left candidates) obtained 300 seats, an absolute majority. Favoured by electoral alliances with the Socialist Party, its close allies, the Radical Party of the Left and the Citizen and Republican Movement, obtained respectively 13 and 2 seats, for a total of 315. This meant that the Socialists could govern without having to rely on the support of other left-wing parties – the Greens, or the Left Front.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV), part of the government and of the presidential majority, also benefited from an electoral alliance with the Socialists, increasing its number of seats from just 4 to 18. (They immediately lost one, however, as EELV leader Cécile Duflot had to relinquish her seat in order to stay in government, and her seat went to her Socialist running mate.) This enabled the Greens to form an official parliamentary group. They become the third biggest party in the Assembly.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
The Left Front, which decided to stand alone after electoral alliance negotiations with the Socialists broke down, lost half its seats (from 19 down to 10), despite a substantial increase in the number of votes its received.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
It no longer has enough seats (15) to be recognised as a parliamentary group on its own, but formed a group (the Democratic and Republican Left) with five miscellaneous left representatives from French overseas departments and territories: Huguette Bello (representing her own "For Réunion" movement; she is a dissident who left the Communist Party of Réunion shortly before the election), Alfred Marie-Jeanne and Jean Philippe Nilor (Martinican Independence Movement), Gabriel Serville (Guianese Socialist Party), and Bruno Nestor Azérot (independent left, from Martinique).


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
The Union for a Popular Movement (and affiliated miscellaneous right candidates), now the main opposition party, lost 112 seats, and several of its prominent members were defeated. In particular, 20 of the 41 members of the "Popular Right" (hard right) faction of the party standing for re-election lost their seats – most notably, Eric Raoult and Maryse Joissains-Masini. Immediately after the defeat, leading members of the party called for a rethink of its positioning and a reassertion of its values.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
Alain Juppé stated that the UMP should stand clear on its incompatibility with the National Front; François Baroin and Jean-Pierre Raffarin expressed the same view, adding that the UMP's strong "drift to the right" and increasing proximity with the ideas of the far right had been a mistake. Party leader Jean-François Copé, however, replied that he disagreed with these views.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
The Democratic Movement (MoDem) lost its leader, François Bayrou, beaten in his own constituency by his Socialist challenger. The party's membership in the Assembly fell from 3 to 2: Jean Lassalle (re-elected in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques) and Thierry Robert (who gained a seat from the UMP in La Réunion). (In Mayotte, incumbent MoDem MP Abdoulatifou Aly was eliminated with a crushingly low score in the first round.) Bayrou's defeat was seen as a potentially crippling blow not just for his own career, but for the party which he had founded, and for the centre in French politics more generally.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
All the more so as the two centre-right parties, the New Centre and the Radical Party, both lost seats, despite an electoral alliance with the UMP. The New Centre's representation in the Assembly fell from 25 members to 14, meaning that it would no longer be recognised as a parliamentary group in itself. The Radical Party obtained just 9 seats.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
The far right obtained representatives in the Assembly for the first time since the 1997 election. Party leaders Marine Le Pen and Louis Aliot were defeated, as was party spokesman Florian Philippot, but Le Pen's 22-year-old niece Marion Maréchal-Le Pen was elected in Carpentras, benefiting from a split opposition due to Socialist candidate Catherine Arkilovitch's refusal, in defiance of party instructions, to withdraw in support of the better-placed UMP candidate.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
Marine Le Pen's lawyer Gilbert Collard, who is not a member of the National Front but was endorsed by it, was also elected, giving the party two seats (for the first time in twenty-four years). In addition, a former member of the National Front and Movement for France, and now independent far right politician, Jacques Bompard, was elected in a constituency neighbouring Maréchal-Le Pen's, in the Vaucluse.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
In overseas departments and territories, several local parties gained or maintained representation. The Guianese Socialist Party won a seat, returning to the Assembly for the first time since 1993. Its MP, Gabriel Serville, was initially to sit with the Socialists, before opting to sit with the Left Front. This was widely seen as a "goodwill gesture" by the Socialist Party, meant to enable the Left Front to pass the 15-member threshold required to form a parliamentary caucus of their own (instead of sitting as "non-aligned" members, which would have resulted in a considerable loss of financial and logistical means).


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
The Martinican Independence Movement obtained two seats (up one from the previous election). Boinali Said, leader of the miscellaneous left "Movement against the high cost of living", won one of the two available seats in Mayotte. In New Caledonia, both seats were won by the centre-right, anti-independence Caledonia Together party, which gained them from the UMP. In French Polynesia, the conservative, pro-autonomy but anti-independence Tahoeraʻa Huiraatira won all three seats.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Overall results by party
The far left parties, as well as the Pirate Party and the small environmentalist parties, failed to reach the second round in any constituency.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Gains and losses
Based on notional party affiliation on dissolution after redistricting, regardless of party affiliation on previous election.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Gains and losses
Based on notional distribution of seats before dissolution and after the 2010 redistricting, 149 seats switched party (26% of the National Assembly, more than in any of the three previous elections). 8 seats switched from the left to the right, 9 from the extreme-left to the left, 119 from the right to the left, 3 from the right to the extreme-right, 3 from the right to the extreme-left, 2 from Modem to the left, 1 from the right to Modem. Four seats switched party within the left (two from PS to PRG, one from PRG to PS, one from PS to EELV) as a result of coalition agreements.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Notable individual results, Government ministers
It is not compulsory in France for a government minister to obtain an electoral mandate, but ministers usually do seek the legitimacy it implies. As no person may simultaneously be a member of the executive and the legislature, any government minister elected to Parliament must immediately resign from their newly obtained seat in the Assembly, in order to remain a minister. Their running mate then takes their seat, and holds it until and unless they cease to be a minister, whereupon they revert to being a member of the Assembly.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Notable individual results, Government ministers
Prior to the 2012 election, new Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault ruled that any minister who stood in the election and was beaten would have to resign from government. Two ministers, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem and Christiane Taubira, opted to withdraw their candidacies in their respective constituencies. Twenty-five ministers (including Ayrault) did decide to stand, while the remaining eight had never expressed an intention to do so.


2012 French legislative election, Results, Notable individual results, Government ministers
All government ministers standing as candidates were elected or re-elected, and were thus able to remain in government. Specifically, they fared as follows:


2012 French legislative election, Notable races
These constituencies attracted particular media interest, due to the presence of a notable candidate facing for example unexpected difficulties, or on the contrary an unexpectedly easy race, or due to the prospect of a significant and meaningful change in fortune for a party. Libération published a list of "twenty-five constituencies to watch out for", with commentaries. France 24 identified eleven "constituencies to watch out for".


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Pas-de-Calais 11th
For the first time, two major candidates from the presidential election stood in the same constituency for the legislative election. Jean-Luc Mélenchon (Left Front) and Marine Le Pen (National Front) are both standing in the Pas-de-Calais's 11th constituency, centred on the town of Hénin-Beaumont. The incumbent MP, Odette Duriez of the Socialist Party, is not standing for re-election; the Socialist candidate is Philippe Kemel. The Le Pen-Mélenchon duel attracted international media attention, including for what it revealed of attitudes and expectations in an area of northern France hit hard by deindustrialisation and unemployment. The Guardian noted that, in that regard, "Mélenchon blames what he sees as pernicious free-market capitalism and bankers; Le Pen points the finger at immigrants and Europe".


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Pas-de-Calais 11th
On the first round, Le Pen won a plurality of the vote. The left-wing vote was split, with the Socialist candidate Philippe Kemel receiving more votes than Mélenchon. All three candidates qualified for the run-off, but Mélenchon withdrew and supported Kemel for the second round. Kemel narrowly won the seat (retaining it for the Socialist Party) with 50.1% of the vote, defeating Marine Le Pen.


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Pyrénées-Atlantiques 2nd
Attention was also drawn to the Pyrénées-Atlantiques's 2nd constituency, where presidential candidate François Bayrou of the centrist Democratic Movement was hoping to retain his seat. Bayrou had held the seat continuously since 1988, but the press raised the possibility that he might this time be beaten. Until 2002, the mainstream right had not stood a candidate against him, and in 2007 the candidate of the Union for a Popular Movement had withdrawn in his favour in the second round.


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Pyrénées-Atlantiques 2nd
Following Bayrou's personal endorsement of François Hollande for the second round of the 2012 presidential election, however, the UMP maintained a candidate against him. He also had to contend with a Socialist opponent, despite there having been talk in the Socialist Party of not standing a candidate in his constituency, as a gesture of acknowledgment for his endorsement of Hollande.


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Pyrénées-Atlantiques 2nd
Bayrou was defeated, with the seat going to Socialist candidate Nathalie Chabanne.


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Charente-Maritime 1st
In Charente-Maritime's 1st constituency, no candidate of the right, centre or far right reached the second round. The second round was between Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party's candidate to the 2007 presidential election (who obtained 32.03% in the first round) and a dissident Socialist, Olivier Falorni (28.91%).


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Charente-Maritime 1st
Falorni won the seat, defeating Royal by a comfortable margin.


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Paris 4th
In well-off Paris's 4th constituency, the opposite situation arose: the two candidates qualified for the second round were both from the right: Bernard Debré for the UMP (45.07% in the first round), and Brigitte Kuster, a UMP dissident (23.01%). Immediately after the first round, however, Kuster withdrew. There was a second round nonetheless, but with only one candidate, who needed simply to receive one vote in order to be elected. This configuration also happened in several constituencies on the left (see subsection "The two-round electoral system", below).


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Hauts-de-Seine 9th
The Hauts-de-Seine's 9th constituency, traditionally a very safe seat for the right, raised unexpected difficulties for UMP candidate and former Minister of the Interior Claude Guéant. A dissident member of the UMP, Thierry Solere, contested his legitimacy, stood against him, and reached the second round, precipitating a three-way runoff between two candidates of the right and one of the left.


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Hauts-de-Seine 9th
Solere narrowly won the seat, obtaining votes from the left given Gueant's unpopularity on that side. The total share of the vote for left-wing candidates was 28%, in the first round, plus 4% for the Modem candidate.


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Meurthe-et-Moselle 5th
This constituency drew attention due to the behaviour and situation of UMP candidate Nadine Morano, who had been Minister for Professional Training in François Fillon's government from 2010 to 2012. She finished second in the first round (34.33%) behind Socialist candidate Dominique Potier (39.29%) and, in the hopes of obtaining more votes in the second, appealed explicitly to the voters of the eliminated National Front, on the grounds of "common values" in what she called a "duel between the right and the left".


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Meurthe-et-Moselle 5th
She defined her common values with far right voters as including "control over immigration, refusing to give foreigners the right to vote" and "the protection of our borders". After she had published an appeal in a far right newspaper, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and the leader of the Greens and Minister for Housing Cécile Duflot both described her behaviour as symptomatic of a worrying shift of part of the right towards the extreme right; Ayrault accused her of renouncing her party's values to try and save her seat.


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Meurthe-et-Moselle 5th
Her situation made headlines again when humorist Gérald Dahan phoned her, pretending to be National Front vice-president Louis Aliot, and recorded her expressing her sympathy and closeness to the National Front. François Fillon publicly rebuked her for not having immediately hung up, saying "we don't talk to the leaders of the National Front. We must reject all forms of extremism". Morano hit back, telling him she was a "free politician".


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Meurthe-et-Moselle 5th
Morano, the incumbent, lost her seat to Socialist candidate Dominique Potier by a 10% margin.


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Bouches-du-Rhône 5th
Marie-Arlette Carlotti, junior Minister for the Disabled, stood in this constituency against the UMP incumbent Renaud Muselier, who had held the seat since 1993. On paper, media reported that, of all the twenty-six ministers standing in the legislative elections, she seemed the least likely to win her constituency. Had she lost, she would have had to resign from the government. She was elected with 51.8%, a result which was also described as having a significant impact on local politics in Marseilles. As minister, she would not be able to sit in Parliament; as long as she stays in the government, her seat goes to her running mate, Avi Assouly, locally famous as a former radio football presenter.


2012 French legislative election, Notable races, Essonne 8th
In addition to Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and François Bayrou, three candidates from the presidential election were standing in this legislative election. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Arise the Republic) finished first in the first round in Essonne's 8th constituency, with 42.82% of the vote, heading into a runoff with Socialist candidate Aude Bristot (30.2%), and eliminating UMP candidate Laurent Béteille (9.52%). In the Gironde's 5th constituency, Philippe Poutou (New Anticapitalist Party) finished eighth and was thus eliminated in the first round, receiving just 2.12% of the vote. In Seine-Saint-Denis's 6th constituency, Nathalie Arthaud (Workers' Struggle) finished sixth with 2.47%, far behind the Socialist incumbent and former Minister for Social Affairs Élisabeth Guigou (46.12%) and the director of l'Humanité, Patrick Le Hyaric, standing for the Left Front (17.33%).


2012 French motorcycle Grand Prix
The 2012 French motorcycle Grand Prix was the fourth round of the 2012 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 18–20 May 2012 at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans, France. In a press conference on the Thursday before the race, Casey Stoner announced his retirement from the sport at the end of the season. He went on to finish third in the MotoGP race, handing the championship lead to Jorge Lorenzo, the race winner. Valentino Rossi took second place for his first podium since the previous year's race. Thomas Lüthi and Louis Rossi won the Moto2 and Moto3 races respectively. This was the 800th race to contribute to the Grand Prix motorcycle racing championship.


2012 French motorcycle Grand Prix, Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)
Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round four has concluded.


2012 French presidential election
A presidential election was held in France on 22 April 2012 (or 21 April in some overseas departments and territories), with a second round run-off held on 6 May (or 5 May for those same territories) to elect the President of France (who is also ex officio one of the two joint heads of state of Andorra, a sovereign state). The incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy was running for a second successive and, under the terms of the constitution, final term in the election.


2012 French presidential election
The first round ended with the selection of François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy as second round participants, as neither of them received a majority of votes cast in the first round. Hollande won the runoff with 51.64% of the vote to Sarkozy's 48.36%.


2012 French presidential election
The presidential election was followed by a legislative election in June.


2012 French presidential election, Primaries, Socialist Party
The 2011 French Socialist Party presidential primary was the first open primary (primaires citoyennes), jointly held by the French Socialist Party and Radical Party of the Left for selecting their candidate for the 2012 presidential election. Voters had to donate at least one Euro and sign a pledge to the values of the Left to be eligible. The filing deadline for primary nomination papers was fixed on 13 July 2011 and six candidates competed in the first round of the vote.


2012 French presidential election, Primaries, Socialist Party
On election day, 9 October 2011, no candidate won at least 50% of the vote therefore the two candidates with the most votes contested a runoff election on 16 October 2011: François Hollande won the primary, defeating Martine Aubry. The idea for holding an open primary to choose the Socialist Party candidate was originally suggested in 2008 by the left-leaning think tank Terra Nova.


2012 French presidential election, Primaries, Europe Écologie–The Greens
Europe Écologie–The Greens (EELV) held a primary to choose its candidate. The vote was open to all members of the party and of the Independent Ecological Movement. There were four candidates. The first round was held on 29 June 2011. Eva Joly, a member of EELV and a former examining magistrate, obtained 49.75% of the vote, ahead of independent candidate and environmental campaigner Nicolas Hulot (40.22%). The other two candidates, Henri Stoll and Stéphane Lhomme, obtained 5.02% and 4.44% respectively. The second round was held on 12 July, with Eva Joly obtaining 13,223 votes (58.16%) to Hulot's 9,399.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Candidates
In order to qualify for the first round of voting, a candidate had to collect the signatures of at least five hundred elected representatives among a total of more than 47,000; these could be mayors, general councillors, regional councillors, deputies, senators, members of the European Parliament elected in France. The number of signatures per candidate is not released, but five hundred signatories for each candidate are chosen randomly and their names are published. Ten candidates qualified in 2012:


2012 French presidential election, First round, Candidates
Socialist Party: President of the General Council of Corrèze, former First Secretary of the Socialist Party and MP François Hollande


2012 French presidential election, First round, Candidates
Union for a Popular Movement: On 15 February 2012, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced he was running for a second five-year term.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Candidates
National Front: Party president and MEP Marine Le Pen was selected on 16 May 2011.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Candidates
Left Front: MEP, former senator and co-president of the Left Party Jean-Luc Mélenchon


2012 French presidential election, First round, Candidates
Democratic Movement: François Bayrou, president of MoDem and MP, confirmed his candidacy on 22 August 2011.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Candidates
Arise the Republic: Mayor of Yerres and MP Nicolas Dupont-Aignan


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign
The official campaign began on 20 March, but in the wake of the shooting at the Ozar Hatorah day school in Toulouse the two leading candidates, Hollande and Sarkozy, suspended their campaigns. Although Jean-Luc Mélenchon argued that to continue with the campaign was "an act of moral, emotional and intellectual resistance." In some parts of the media, Sarkozy and Le Pen were also criticised for misusing the Midi-Pyrénées shootings as campaign fodder against "radical Islam."


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign
The following is a brief overview of the campaign adapted from information in Le Monde.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, François Hollande
François Hollande, the candidate of the Socialist Party and the Radical Party of the Left, topped the opinion polls throughout the campaign. He emphasised his promise to be a "normal" president, in contrast to Nicolas Sarkozy's sometimes controversial presidential style. He aimed to resorb France's national debt by 2017, notably by cancelling tax cuts for the wealthy and tax exemptions introduced by President Sarkozy.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, François Hollande
Income tax would be raised to 75% for incomes beyond one million euros; the retirement age would be brought back to 60 (with a full pension) for persons who have worked 42 years; 60 000 jobs cut by Nicolas Sarkozy in public education would be recreated. Homosexual couples would have the right to marry and adopt. Residents without European Union passports would be given the right to vote in local elections after five years of legal residency.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, François Hollande
On housing, he has promised to regulate rises in rent; to use punitive measures to compel towns and cities to apply the 2000 Law on Solidarity and Urban Renewal (French article on the law), which mandates the providing of social housing; and to provide public lands for the building of social housing. Hollande won the election, finishing first on the first balloting of ten candidates in April with 28.63% of the vote, and again finishing first on the runoff ballot between himself and Sarkozy with 51.64% against Sarkozy's 48.36%.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy, the incumbent president and candidate of the Union for a Popular Movement, was aiming for a second and last term in office. He was consistently second in opinion polls throughout the campaign, behind François Hollande. His reforms during his first term included a reform of universities, and of the retirement age; a reform enabling citizens to query the constitutionality of laws; and a reduction in the number of public sector employees. He argued that his reforms had helped steer France through a period of economic crisis.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Nicolas Sarkozy
Sarkozy's campaign pledges for his potential second term are described by Le Monde as "anchored on the right". He has promised to reduce legal immigration by 50%; threatened to withdraw France from the Schengen Area unless it were revised to enable stricter border controls; promised to compel beneficiaries of the Revenu de solidarité active to accept certain jobs, in exchange for support in finding them; and opposed Hollande's proposals in favour of gay marriage and voting rights for foreign residents in local elections. He has also promised more frequent referenda, for citizens to be consulted on major issues.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Nicolas Sarkozy
Sarkozy admitted during the campaign that he did not visit Fukushima while in Japan after the previous year's earthquake and tsunami, despite having previously said he had done so.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen is the candidate of the National Front, succeeding her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was a candidate in five presidential elections. Aiming to reach the second round, as her father had done in 2002, she also attempted to provide a different image of the party, avoiding the controversial statements previously made by her father. She has advocated "national preference" for French citizens (over foreign residents) for access to jobs and social services, and a form of protectionism, as well as withdrawing from the euro and the European Union.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Marine Le Pen
She has advocated reducing legal immigration by 95%, abolishing the right to family reunification, and reinstating the death penalty, abolished in 1981 by then president François Mitterrand. She held the third place in opinion polls for much of the campaign, occasionally rising into first and second place in 2011 or dipping to fourth behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon, but remained consistently behind Hollande and Sarkozy by 2012. She finished the 2012 balloting with 17.90% of the vote tally, placing her third in the final results.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the candidate of the Left Front, which includes in particular the French Communist Party and the Left Party. (He is a member of the latter.) He has been described as the surprise or revelation of the campaign, with his level of support in opinion polls rising from 5% in October 2011 to around 15% (and sometimes up to 17%) by the end of the campaign.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Jean-Luc Mélenchon
He finished in the first round of balloting with 11.10% of the national electorate, placing him fourth in the field of 10 ♠s. He inaugurated the practice of giant open-air meetings, which the two leading candidates then adopted in turn. A former French teacher, he was noted for his eloquent style and oratory, but also for his argumentative relationship with journalists, and occasional insults; he notably described Marine Le Pen as "half-demented".


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Jean-Luc Mélenchon
He proposed raising the minimum wage to €1,700; setting a maximum wage differential of 1 to 20 in all businesses, so that employers wishing to increase their own salaries would also have to increase those of their employees; setting social and environmental norms which businesses would have to respect in order to receive public subsidies; supporting social enterprises through government procurement; taxing imports which do not meet certain social and environmental norms; and reestablishing 60 as the legal retirement age with a full pension.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Jean-Luc Mélenchon
There would be an "ecological planification" towards a green, sustainable economy, backed by a "green rule" (règle verte) to be inscribed in the Constitution. On tax, he has proposed a progressive taxation, with higher taxes on the wealthy and a 100% tax rate beyond an income of €360,000 (thereby creating a maximum wage); expatriate French nationals established in a country with a lower tax rate than in France would pay the difference in tax in France. Businesses creating jobs, paying higher wages and/or providing training would receive tax cuts.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Healthcare costs would be fully reimbursed by the state, and the right to die would be recognised. The right to abortion would be secured through inclusion in the Constitution. Homosexual couples would have the right to marry and adopt. Naturalisation of foreign residents would be facilitated, and foreign residents would have the right to vote in local elections. A constitutional convention would be assembled, with an aim in particular to increase the prerogatives of Parliament and diminish the powers of the President; all elections would be based on proportional representation, with gender parity.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, François Bayrou
François Bayrou was the candidate of the Democratic Movement, which he founded in 2007. He is one of only two candidates to stand in both the 2007 and 2012 elections (the other being Nicolas Sarkozy); he obtained 18.57% of the vote in 2007, finishing third. In the 2012 election he received 9.13% of the vote in the first round of balloting, finishing fifth. He stands for an independent centre in politics, which he has sought to distinguish clearly both from the left and the right.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, François Bayrou
Describing France as being "in a critical state", he has focused on reducing the country's national debt, through a public spending freeze, cuts to tax exemptions, and a raise in taxes (Value added tax and taxes on the wealthy). On education, he has proposed that half the time in primary school should be dedicated to the mastering of reading and writing.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Eva Joly
Eva Joly was the candidate of Europe Écologie–The Greens. Before entering politics for this election, she was a known public figure, as the examining magistrate in criminal corruption cases involving powerful companies or individuals – notably the Elf Aquitaine oil company, the Crédit Lyonnais bank or businessman and politician Bernard Tapie. (See: Elf affair (fr).) She is also the first foreign-born person to stand for the French presidency; born in Norway, she is a naturalized French citizen.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Eva Joly
She focused her campaign not only on the environment but also on social issues, describing herself as the representative of the "reasonable" or "realistic" left, and on denouncing discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities. Homosexual couples would be given the right to marry and adopt, and foreign residents would have the right to vote in all elections. She suggested that the "ecological transformation of the economy" would create 600 000 jobs over the next five years.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Eva Joly
An agreement signed between her party and the Socialist Party contained a clause on the closing of nuclear reactors; in the final stages of the campaign, when François Hollande announced it would not be upheld, she expressed the hope she could still convince him. She also drew attention by accusing Nicolas Sarkozy of having obtained illicit funding for his previous campaign; critics accused her of ignoring the presumption of innocence, and Sarkozy himself replied that he "despised" her accusations. Known for her bright red glasses, which she symbolically switched for bright green ones, she was described by the press as struggling with her campaign, barely reaching 3% in opinion polls.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, described as an "anti-euro souverainist", is the candidate of Arise the Republic, a party he founded in 2008. He has advocated leaving the euro on grounds of economic well-being, and the European Union "in its current form", which he describes as "already dead" and leading to "economic ruin and social regression". He has called for an "intelligent protectionism", with tariffs on imports that result from "human slavery"; and tax cuts for businesses that reinvest their profits in France. He has described himself as a Gaullist.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Philippe Poutou
Philippe Poutou, a worker in a car factory, is the candidate of the New Anticapitalist Party, succeeding Olivier Besancenot. For much of the campaign, he remained little known to the general public; he was described as lacking Besancenot's popularity, charisma and ease with words.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Philippe Poutou
Freely admitting that he did not particularly want to be a candidate, and that he did not aim to be elected (particularly as one of his policies was to abolish the function of president, in favour of a fully parliamentary system), he saw his profile and popularity increase somewhat in the late stages of the campaign, when all candidates obtained equal airtime in the media. In particular, his unconventional behaviour drew attention during the television programme Des paroles et des actes (fr), along with his unusual campaign clips – such as one based on the film The Artist. Like Nathalie Arthaud, his message was that improvements in workers' rights would come through workers' struggles and demands rather than through the ballot box.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Nathalie Arthaud
Nathalie Arthaud, a teacher of economics and management in a secondary school, is the candidate of Workers' Struggle. She succeeds famous perennial candidate Arlette Laguiller, who represented the party in six consecutive presidential elections, from 1974 to 2007. A Trotskyist, she has described herself as the "only communist candidate" in the election. She has stated that she does not aim to be elected, describing elections as "inessential", and considering that workers will obtain new rights only through their struggles rather than through the ballot box.


2012 French presidential election, First round, Campaign, Jacques Cheminade
Jacques Cheminade is the candidate of his Solidarity and Progress movement, the French branch of the LaRouche movement. Described as a "conspiracy theorist" by the press, he drew some attention with his proposals for an expanded space programme, and stagnated slightly above 0% in the opinion polls.


2012 French presidential election, Second round, Campaign
Since the first round there had been a drive to woo far-right voters with Sarkozy making immigration a major issue of his campaign and Hollande focusing on the euro-zone crisis and the state of the economy. Sarkozy's move to the right in embracing National Front themes such as stricter immigration has drawn criticism from prominent figures from his own party such as former Prime Ministers Dominique de Villepin, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Alain Juppé and Senators Chantal Jouanno and Jean-René Lecerf.


2012 French presidential election, Second round, Campaign
There was more criticism of the German-led austerity measures by Hollande, while he also responded to Sarkozy's words at a rally in Toulouse saying that "without borders there is no nation, there is no Republic, there is no civilisation. We are not superior to others but we are different." In turn Hollande told a bigger rally in Paris that "I want victory, but not at any price, not at the price of caricature and lies. I want to win over the men and women who are angry, a hundred times yes, but compromise myself? A thousand times no."


2012 French presidential election, Second round, Campaign
Sarkozy reiterated threats to withdraw from the Schengen Agreement if there was no tightening of border controls. He also said that there would be a presumption of self-defense when police are involved in the killing of suspects and criticised the EU's lack of mention of Europe's Christian roots in its constitution. Many of the issues were similar to that of the National Front, from which Sarkozy's UMP gained votes between the 2002 and 2007 election. He further spoke "to those French who stay home, don’t complain when Francois Hollande is elected and regularizes all illegal immigrants and lets foreigners vote."


2012 French presidential election, Second round, Campaign
Le Pen stated she would submit a blank ballot in the run-off, calling on her supporters to make their own choices. Bayrou announced on 3 May that he would vote for Hollande. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said she saw nothing "normal" in Hollande, despite his attempts to portray himself as such; instead she supported Sarkozy's campaign. Campaigning officially ended on 4 May.


2012 French presidential election, Second round, Campaign
In the last government bond sale before the election, the previously rising yields fell slightly, while the amount sold was marginally lower than expected.


2012 French presidential election, Second round, Campaign
The campaign has led to a "certain degree of gridlock in EU‘s corridors of power". It's unclear who will be the head of the Euro Group, who will join the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) and who will lead the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).


2012 French presidential election, Second round, Endorsements
In the days before the election, editorials in the main newspapers expressed opinions about the two candidates.


2012 French presidential election, Second round, Endorsements
Le Monde did not explicitly support one or the other, but wrote that Hollande "has confirmed, between the two rounds, his consistency, albeit without addressing the vagueness of some of his own proposals", while Sarkozy "has demonstrated his inconsistency, first running after the National Front, crossing the red line which had been set at the turn of the 1980s, and respected since then in the ranks of the republican right, before moving back towards the centre to avoid a breakdown with his own side". Libération supported Hollande:


2012 French presidential election, Second round, Endorsements
On the right, Nicolas Sarkozy has kept up a strategy of tension, leading his side into a transgression of its founding values. Whatever the outcome of the vote, the political landscape will remain, as a consequence, marked by a lasting and dangerous change. On the left, François Hollande has demonstrated that another vision of politics, another way of conceiving the State, another European politics are not only possible but within sight. And that, to finish, justice must be the cardinal virtue of societies such as ours, marked by a deep crisis and anger.


2012 French presidential election, Second round, Endorsements
Of the candidates who went out in the first round, Bayrou, Joly and Cheminade all explicitly declared their support for Hollande in the second round, while Mélenchon and Poutou implicitly endorsed a vote for Hollande by urging their supporters to vote against Sarkozy. Dupont-Aignan backed Sarkozy, while Le Pen and Arthaud declined to support either candidate.


2012 French presidential election, Second round, Debates
There was one televised debate between Hollande and Sarkozy, although Sarkozy said he would prefer three, an idea Hollande rejected. This took place on 2 May. Hollande accused Sarkozy of dividing the French and failing to lower unemployment. Hollande promised to be a president for social justice, economic recovery and national unity. Sarkozy was said to have told Hollande that his lack of experience in national government made him unfit for the task of leading the world's fifth-largest economy in a crisis.


2012 French presidential election, Voting in overseas departments and territories
In overseas departments and territories of France located west of metropolitan France (Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, and French Polynesia), voting takes place a day early, so that citizens in those territories and departments do not find themselves voting after the initial announcement of results. This is also the case for French residents in foreign countries west of metropolitan France.


2012 French presidential election, Voting in overseas departments and territories
Some of these communities are remote; Amerindians in French Guiana, who are French citizens, "sometimes live more than three hours away by canoe from their ballot box", particularly in the large remote commune of Maripasoula. The electoral campaign papers sent to these voters, however, reportedly indicated 22 April as the day of the election, instead of 21 April.


2012 French presidential election, Results
François Hollande received 51.64% of the votes, while Nicolas Sarkozy secured 48.36% of the votes in the second round. Sarkozy became the first one-term president since Valéry Giscard d'Estaing lost to François Mitterrand in 1981.


2012 French presidential election, Post election
French law sets a blackout of the release of exit polls until the last polling station is closed at 20:00, with fines of up to €75,000.


2012 French presidential election, Post election
However, the result was leaked on Twitter, circumventing the law with code names: "Flanby" for Hollande, "le nain" (midget) for Sarkozy, Titanic for Marine Le Pen, or Tomate for Mélenchon, as well as other humorous names and metaphors were also used such as Amsterdam (for Hollande), Budapest (for Sarkozy, who has Hungarian heritage), Berlin (for Le Pen, due to the Nazi past of Germany) and Moscow (for Mélenchon, due to the Communist past of Russia). The hashtag #RadioLondres was used as it recalls the coded messages from World War II sent by Radio Londres. EU-based media outlets not subject to the French blackout law reported early exit poll results before closure of the polls, in both rounds of the election. Olivier Cimelière reported that some people saw a risk of manipulating future elections.


2012 French presidential election, Reactions
Sarkozy called for UMP to "stay together. We must win the battle of the legislatives" and said that "in this new era, I will remain one of you, but my place will no longer be the same. My engagement with the life of my country will now be different, but time will never strain the bonds between us." Hollande then spoke at a victory rally in Tulle where he said:


2012 French presidential election, Reactions
To those who haven't voted for me, let them know that I hear them, and that I will be president to all. There is one France, united in the same destiny. We will never be apart, how beautiful life is tonight!


2012 French presidential election, Reactions
He then travelled to Paris, where supporters of the Socialist Party gathered outside the headquarters. He also said that "Europe is watching us. Austerity isn’t inevitable. My mission now is to give European construction a growth dimension."


2012 Fresno State Bulldogs football team
The 2012 Fresno State Bulldogs football team represented California State University, Fresno in the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Bulldogs were led by first-year head coach Tim DeRuyter and played their home games at Bulldog Stadium. This was their first year as a member of the Mountain West Conference. They finished the season 9–4, 7–1 in Mountain West play to share the conference championship with Boise State and San Diego State. They were invited to the Hawaii Bowl where they were defeated by SMU.


2012 Fresno mayoral election
The 2012 Fresno mayoral election was held on June 5, 2012  to elect the mayor of Fresno, California. It saw the reelection of Ashley Swearengin.


2012 Fresno mayoral election
Since Swearengin won a majority in the first round, no runoff was required.


2012 Frontier Conference football season
The 2012 Frontier Conference football season was made up of nine United States college athletic programs that competed in the Frontier Conference under the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) for the 2012 college football season. Southern Oregon and Montana Tech were declared co-champions at the end of the season. Both championship teams advanced to the 2012 NAIA Football National Championship.


2012 Frontier Conference football season, Awards
The conference made the following awards at the end of the season:


2012 Frontier Conference football season, Awards
The conference also selected other players to all-conference first and second teams and also declared academic all-conference team honors. Carroll College led the academic awards with 31 student-athletes selected.


2012 Frontier Conference football season, Awards
Two coaches from the conference were recognized by the American Football Coaches Association. Head coach Chuck Morrell of Montana Tech was named the NAIA Region 5 Coach of the Year and Jim Hogan at Carroll College was a finalist for Assistant Coach of the Year honors.


2012 Fuji GT 300km
The 2012 Fuji GT 300km was the sixth round of the 2012 Super GT season. It took place on September 9, 2012.


2012 Fuji GT 500km
The 2012 Fuji GT 500km was the second round of the 2012 Super GT season. It took place on May 4, 2012.


2012 Fukuoka International Women's Cup
The 2012 Fukuoka International Women's Cup was a professional tennis tournament played on grass courts. It was the twelfth edition of the tournament which was part of the 2012 ITF Women's Circuit. It took place in Fukuoka, Japan, on 7–13 May 2012.


2012 Fukuoka International Women's Cup, WTA entrants, Other entrants
The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw:


2012 Fukuoka International Women's Cup – Doubles
Shuko Aoyama and Rika Fujiwara were the defending champions, but Fujiwara chose not to participate. Aoyama paired up with Junri Namigata but lost in the first round to Chan Chin-wei and Hsu Wen-hsin.


2012 Fukuoka International Women's Cup – Doubles
Monique Adamczak and Stephanie Bengson won the title, defeating Misa Eguchi and Akiko Omae in the final, 6–4, 6–4.


2012 Fukuoka International Women's Cup – Singles
Tamarine Tanasugarn was the defending champion, but withdrew before the event started.


2012 Fukuoka International Women's Cup – Singles
Casey Dellacqua won the title, defeating Monique Adamczak in the final, 6–4, 6–1.


2012 Furman Paladins football team
The 2012 Furman Paladins football team represented Furman University in the 2012 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by second year head coach Bruce Fowler and played their home games at Paladin Stadium. They are a member of the Southern Conference. They finished the season 3–8, 2–6 in SoCon play to finish in seventh place.


2012 Fórmula Truck season
The 2012 Fórmula Truck season was the 17th Fórmula Truck season. It began on March 4 at Velopark, and ended on December 9 at Brasília after ten rounds. All ten rounds counted towards the Brazilian title, with four rounds counting towards the South American title.


2012 Fórmula Truck season
Mercedes-Benz driver Leandro Totti won the South American and Brazilian Championship.


2012 Fórmula Truck season, Teams and drivers
All drivers were Brazilian-registered, excepting Luis Pucci, who raced under Argentine racing license.


2012 Fórmula Truck season, Calendar
All races were held in Brazil, excepting round at Autódromo Oscar Cabalén, that was held in Argentina.


2012 Fórmula Truck season, Championship standings, Brazilian, Drivers' standings
1 2 3 4 5 refers to the classification of the drivers on the yellow flag scheduled, where bonus points are awarded 5–4–3–2–1 and the top five drivers in race ensures a place on the podium.


2012 Fórmula Truck season, Championship standings, South American, Drivers' standings
1 2 3 4 5 refers to the classification of the drivers on the yellow flag scheduled, where bonus points are awarded 5–4–3–2–1 and the top five drivers in race ensures a place on the podium.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit
The 2012 G20 Los Cabos Summit was the seventh meeting of the G20 heads of government/heads of state.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit
It was held in the Los Cabos Convention Center, San José del Cabo, Los Cabos Municipality, Mexico from June 18–19, 2012.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, Background
The final draft of G20 Toronto summit communique became the public announcement that the 2011 summit in France would be followed by a 2012 summit in Mexico.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, Preparations
Pre -planning for the summit began in 2010. In January, Mexican Deputy Foreign Minister Lourdes Aranda hosted a preliminary meeting in Mexico City. It was attended by "sherpas" (representatives) of the G20 foreign ministries.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, Preparations
The convention center was designed and constructed by Mexican architect Fernando Romero in a time span of seven months. It houses the largest green wall in the world, covering an area of 2,700 square meters.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, Agenda
Mexico believes the forum can better represent developing countries in both vision and policy. Under the leadership of President Felipe Calderón, Mexico will seek to expand the scope of the G20's development focus. Calderon also said of funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that "it’s going to be the first time the fund is capitalized without the U.S., which reflects the importance of emerging markets."


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, Agenda
Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega added that the BRICS countries were "going to make an additional contribution to the IMF that will be announced at the leaders’ meeting," in relation to similar amount announced by the group in April of about US$75 billion. European leaders were pressured by major economies to resolve the European sovereign-debt crisis after New Democracy won a plurality Greek legislative election in June.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, Attendance
The list below shows the leaders that have attended the 2012 G20 Leaders Summit.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, Sideline meetings
U.S. President Barack Obama planned, first, a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin which was expected to run for one-and-a-half hours and cover "projected deployment of missile shield in Europe, prospects of peace settlement in Syria and bilateral ties [including the] Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act". Obama and Putin made a joint statement about the 2011-2012 Syrian uprising that read: "In order to stop the bloodshed in Syria, we call for an immediate cessation of all violence.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, Sideline meetings
We are united in the belief that the Syrian people should have the opportunity to independently and democratically choose their own future." It also followed Russia's intention to send two Russian warships, Nikolai Filchenkov and Tsezar Kunikov, with marines to its naval base in Tartus. As a result of the June Greek election, a bilateral meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the U.S. President Barack Obama on the situation in the eurozone was also planned.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, Sideline meetings
10 Downing Street issued a statement that said British Prime Minister David Cameron had confronted Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner with a letter she had sent him in regards to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. She told him the issue should be resolved under the terms of  United Nations General Assembly resolution 40/21 of November 1985. Cameron was reported to have said that "I am not proposing a full discussion now on the Falklands but I hope you have noted that they are holding a referendum and you should respect their views.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, Sideline meetings
We should believe in self determination and act as democrats here in the G20." The statement said that Cameron had confronted her "with vigour;" however, Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman said: "The president had the UN resolutions and she said to Cameron: 'Let's respect the United Nations'. The prime minister refused to accept the documents, turned his back and walked away without a farewell.


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, Sideline meetings
After years of acting as a colonial power they have forgotten that they are responsible for the existence of colonialism, and that it is countries like Argentina that defeated most of the colonial projects in the world." The Prime Minister's Office later said that "we don't need an envelope from Fernandez to know what the UN resolutions say.... All the UN resolutions do refer to the UN charter, which enshrines the principle of self-determination and that is what we are asking the Argentines to respect."


2012 G20 Los Cabos summit, The Convention Center
The Convention Center, located in Los Cabos, Mexico, was designed by the Mexican architect Fernando Romero. The distinctive element of the center is the green wall, the largest in the world, with an area of 2,700m2


2012 GCC Champions League
The GCC Champions League (Arabic: دوري أبطال الخليج للأندية), is an annually organized football league tournament for club of the Arabian peninsula.


2012 GCC Champions League
The 2012 edition was the 27th time that it has been organized.


2012 GCC Champions League, The Groups
Top two from each group qualify for the one legged quarter finals with group winners hosting the matches.


2012 GCC Champions League, Final, 2nd Leg
Al Muharraq became champions, winning on penalties, the first team from Bahrain to be crowned champions.


2012 GCC U-17 Championship
The 2012 GCC U-17 Championship will take place in Kuwait from September 22 - October 1. It is the 9th edition of the tournament.


2012 GCC U-17 Championship, Groups
The draw for the championships took place on 30 June 2012.


2012 GCC U-23 Championship
The 2012 GCC U-23 Championship is the fourth edition of GCC U-23 Championship taking place in Qatar between 1 September and 11 September 2012. It will be the third time that Qatar have been hosts. Six nations have entered.


2012 GEICO 400
The 2012 GEICO 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on September 16, 2012, at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. Contested over 267 laps, it was the twenty-seventh in the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as well as the first race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ends the season.


2012 GEICO 400, Report, Background
Chicagoland Speedway is one of ten intermediate tracks to hold NASCAR races; the others are Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Homestead Miami Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway. The standard track at Chicagoland Speedway is a four-turn tri-oval track that is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long. The track's turns are each banked at 18 degrees and have a turn width of 55 feet. The racetrack has a grandstand capacity of 75,000.


2012 GEICO 400, Report, Background
Before the race, Denny Hamlin led the Drivers' Championship with 2,012 points, with Jimmie Johnson in second place with, 2,009. Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowski were tied with Johnson for the second position, while Greg Biffle had 2,006 points. Clint Bowyer also with 2,006 points was one point ahead of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Matt Kenseth, as Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex, Jr. rounded out the top ten with 2,000 points each. In the parallel Chase for the Sprint Cup, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon both started with their points total reset to 2,000. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 179 points, twenty-four points ahead of Toyota. Ford, with 129 points, was twenty points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third place. Stewart was the race's defending winner.


2012 GEICO 400, Report, Practice and qualifying
Two practice sessions were held in preparation for the race; both on Friday, September 14, 2012. The first session and second session lasted for 90 minutes each. During the first practice session, Truex, Jr., for the Michael Waltrip Racing team, was quickest ahead of Earnhardt, Jr. in second and Keselowski in third. Trevor Bayne was scored fourth, and Hamlin managed fifth. Jamie McMurray, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman rounded out the top ten quickest drivers in the session.


2012 GEICO 400, Report, Practice and qualifying
Kyle Busch was quickest in the second and final practice session, ahead of Aric Almirola in second, and Martin in third. Edwards was fourth quickest, and Hamlin took fifth. Kahne, Johnson, Bayne, Kenseth, and Gordon followed in the top ten. Of the other drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Stewart was scored fourteenth fastest, while Truex, Jr. was scored twenty-fifth.


2012 GEICO 400, Report, Practice and qualifying
Forty-seven cars were entered for qualifying, but only forty-three could race because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure. Johnson clinched his second pole position in the season, with a time of 29.530. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Almirola. Kenseth qualified third, Earnhardt, Jr. took fourth, and Edwards started fifth. Biffle, one of the drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, qualified twenty-second, while Harvick was scored thirty-fifth. The three drivers that failed to qualify for the race were Scott Riggs, Reed Sorenson, J. J. Yeley, and Jason Leffler.


2012 GP Miguel Induráin
The 2012 GP Miguel Induráin was the 59th edition of the GP Miguel Induráin cycle race and was held on 31 March 2012. The race started and finished in Estella. The race was won by Daniel Moreno.


2012 GP Ouest–France
The 2012 GP Ouest-France was the 76th edition of the GP Ouest-France, a single-day cycling race. It was held on 26 August 2012, over a distance of 243 km (151.0 mi), starting and finishing in Plouay, France. It was the twenty-fourth race of the 2012 UCI World Tour season.


2012 GP Ouest–France
The race was won by Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen, after breaking away from the peloton to catch solo leader Rui Costa of the Movistar Team, and accelerated away from him to beat the field by five seconds in Plouay. Costa managed to hold off the rest of the field for second place, while the bunch sprint for third place was taken by Garmin–Sharp's Heinrich Haussler.


2012 GP Ouest–France, Teams
As the GP Ouest-France was a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Five other squads were given wildcard places into the race, and as such, formed the event's 23-team peloton.


2012 GP2 Series
The 2012 GP2 Series season was the forty-sixth season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also eighth season under the GP2 Series moniker and also the first season after merging with the GP2 Asia Series. The championship was expanded to include rounds in Malaysia, Bahrain and Singapore, in support of the 2012 Formula One season.


2012 GP2 Series
The series adopted the points system used by Formula One for the feature race, with points awarded to the top ten drivers and twenty-five points on offer for victory. The points awarded in the sprint race were also changed, with the winner receiving fifteen points and top eight drivers receiving points. Further changes mean that drivers must use two compounds of tyres over a race weekend, as is the case in Formula One. The points awarded for pole position and the fastest lap of the race were doubled as well.


2012 GP2 Series
The title was won by Italian Davide Valsecchi, driving for DAMS. After leading in the championship after winning sprint race in Silverstone, Luiz Razia ultimately got to second in the championship after score four victories. Esteban Gutierrez came third with 3 victories and finished just ahead of Max Chilton, who had 2 wins.


2012 GP2 Series, 2012 schedule
The calendar for the 2012 series was unveiled on 16 December 2011. The calendar was expanded to twelve rounds, featuring new races in Malaysia, Singapore, and Bahrain. The championship featured twenty-four races, a record high for the series.


2012 GP2 Series, Championship standings
Points were awarded to the top 10 classified finishers in the Feature race, and to the top 8 classified finishers in the Sprint race. The pole-sitter in the feature race also received four points, and two points were given to the driver who set the fastest lap inside the top ten in both the feature and sprint races. No extra points were awarded to the pole-sitter in the sprint race.


2012 GP3 Series
The 2012 GP3 Series season was the third season of the GP3 Series, a feeder series for the GP2 Series. The season began at Barcelona on 12 May and concluded at Autodromo Nazionale Monza on 9 September after eight rounds made up of two races each and all in support of European Formula One Grands Prix.


2012 GP3 Series
The series adopted the points system used by Formula One for the feature race, with points awarded to the top ten drivers and twenty-five points on offer for victory. The points awarded in the sprint race also were changed, with the winner receiving fifteen points and top eight drivers receiving points. The points awarded for pole position and the fastest lap of the race also were doubled.


2012 GP3 Series
The winner of the championship was Mitch Evans driving for the MW Arden team, who outscored Lotus GP driver Daniel Abt by two points.


2012 GP3 Series
2012 was also the final season that the Dallara GP3/10 chassis package, which débuted in the inaugural season of the series in 2010, was used in competition, as a new chassis package and car, the Dallara GP3/13, was introduced for 2013.


2012 GP3 Series, Teams and drivers
Ten teams and thirty drivers had been due to take part in the 2012 season. However, in April 2012 it was reported that only twenty-seven drivers would take place with Mücke Motorsport missing from the grid.


2012 GP3 Series, 2012 Schedule
The 2012 calendar was announced on 16 December 2011. The series consisted of eight rounds, with a round in Monaco confirmed on 26 January 2012. The series had previously attempted to include a race in Monaco for the 2011 season, but was forced to abandon its plans when it was found that the support paddock did not have enough space for the GP3 Series. The series supported every Grand Prix on the European leg of the 2012 Formula One season.


2012 GP3 Series, Race summaries
Carlin's António Félix da Costa qualified on pole position by 0.01 seconds to Lotus GP drivers Conor Daly and Aaro Vainio. However, on the start of the race their team-mate Daniel Abt made a fast getaway from seventh on the grid to lead. But Abt and Félix da Costa both had a jump start and got drive-through penalties. Returnee Mitch Evans, who was behind the two drivers after the start, won the opening race at Barcelona. Status Grand Prix's Marlon Stöckinger scored his first series podium, finishing second. Vainio completed the podium. Conor Daly recouped in the sprint race, claiming his first series win. Reverse polesitter Robert Visoiu and MW Arden's Matias Laine were also on podium.


2012 GP3 Series, Race summaries
Two weeks later at Monaco Vainio took the championship lead from Evans after his first series win from pole position in the feature race. He was joined on the podium by Atech CRS GP's Tamás Pál Kiss and Ocean Racing Technology's Kevin Ceccon. Stöckinger, who started from reverse pole, celebrated his first series win. Félix da Costa and Abt completed the podium. The race was noted by two huge accidents between Carlin team-mates Alex Brundle and William Buller, and between Marussia Manor Racing's Dmitry Suranovich and Daly.


2012 GP3 Series, Race summaries
The next series stop was at Valencia Street Circuit, where Mitch Evans regained championship lead with win from pole. Aaro Vainio was second, while David Fumanelli scored his first series podium. Like at Monaco the win in the sprint race was claimed by reverse polesitter. This time it was Jenzer Motorsport's Patric Niederhauser, who won the race in GP3 for the first time. Abt and Laine completed the podium.


2012 GP3 Series, Race summaries
Prior Silverstone round António Félix da Costa became part of the Red Bull Junior Team and his results increased. He scored his first win of the season, despite start behind championship leaders Evans and Vainio, who joined Félix da Costa on podium. Tyre strategy enabled William Buller to claim the victory in the second race starting from last row on the grid. Daly and Niederhauser completed the podium.


2012 GP3 Series, Race summaries
Daniel Abt scored his first pole position on the home soil at Hockenheim. But wet race conditions helped Patric Niederhauser score his second win. Conor Daly and Trident Racing's Giovanni Venturini joined him on podium. Evans extended championship lead by winning the sprint race. He was joined by Lotus GP's Abt and Daly. The race was noted by airborne accidents which left Vicky Piria and Fabiano Machado with injuries.


2012 GP3 Series, Race summaries
António Félix da Costa was unstoppable at Budapest, becoming the first GP3 Series driver, who had double win during the weekend. Habitual residents of the podium Abt, Evans and Niederhauser rose again on the podium stages, with Alex Brundle, who joined them for the first time.


2012 GP3 Series, Championship standings
Points were awarded to the top 10 classified finishers in the race 1, and to the top 8 classified finishers in the race 2. The pole-sitter in the race 1 also received four points, and two points were given to the driver who set the fastest lap inside the top ten in both the race 1 and race 2. No extra points were awarded to the pole-sitter in the race 2.


2012 GX17
2012 GX17, also written as 2012 GX17, is a minor body classified as Centaur and Trans-Neptunian object by the Minor Planet Center. The object was once considered a promising Neptune L5 trojan candidate.


2012 GX17, Discovery
2012 GX17 was discovered on 14 April 2012 by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope, observing from Haleakala, Hawaii.


2012 GX17, Orbit
2012 GX17 follows a rather eccentric orbit (0.55) with a semi-major axis of 37.4 AU. This object also has high orbital inclination (32.5º).


2012 GX17, Physical properties
2012 GX17 is a rather large minor body with an absolute magnitude of 7.6 which gives a characteristic diameter of 60–200 km for an assumed albedo in the range 0.5–0.05.


2012 GX17, Former Neptune trojan candidate
Initially, 2012 GX17 was considered to be a promising Neptune trojan candidate, based on a very preliminary determination of 30.13 AU for its semi-major axis. However, the true value is much larger (37.4 AU) and it is now classified as a Trans-Neptunian object.


2012 Gabala Cup
The 2012 Gabala Cup is an international football tournament for U-15 teams held in Azerbaijan.


2012 Gabala Cup, Format
The eight invited teams were split into two groups that played a round-robin tournament. On completion of this, the fourth placed teams in each group would play each other to determine seventh and eighth place, the third placed teams in each group would play each other to decide fifth and sixth place, the second placed teams in each group would play to determine third and fourth place and the winners of each group would compete for first and second place overall.


2012 Gabala Cup, Format
Points awarded in the group stage followed the standard formula of three points for a win, one point for a draw and zero points for a loss.


2012 Gainare Tottori season
The 2012 Gainare Tottori season sees Gainare Tottori compete in J.League Division 2 for the second consecutive season. Gainare Tottori are also competing in the 2012 Emperor's Cup.


2012 Galician regional election
The 2012 Galician regional election was held on Sunday, 21 October 2012, to elect the 9th Parliament of the autonomous community of Galicia. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with a regional election in the Basque Country.


2012 Galician regional election
President Alberto Núñez Feijóo announced the election following Lehendakari Patxi López's decision to schedule a Basque snap regional election for 21 October 2012. The vote was seen as an electoral test on the economic policy of Mariano Rajoy's government, which had been elected at the 2011 Spanish general election and had undertook harsh spending cuts which had seen its popularity ratings plummet in opinion polls.


2012 Galician regional election
Feijóo aimed at securing reelection for a second term in office at the helm of the regional People's Party (PP), for which he needed the party to retain the absolute majority it commanded in parliament to prevent an alternative coalition being formed between the Socialists' Party of Galicia (PSdeG–PSOE) and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG), similarly to the one in power in the 2005–2009 period.


2012 Galician regional election
The election resulted in an increased majority for Feijóo, as support for both the PSdeG and BNG plunged amid internal party infighting and disillusion from left-from-centre voters. The Galician Left Alternative (AGE) alliance, headed by former BNG leader Xosé Manuel Beiras and comprising United Left (EU) and Beiras's newly-created party Anova, obtained a surprise result with 200,000 votes and 14% of the share, scoring in third place regionally and displacing the PSdeG in second place in the cities of A Coruña, Ferrol and Santiago de Compostela. The fragmentation of the left-wing vote and the high abstention rate—with slightly over 45% of the electorate not casting a ballot—favoured the PP enlarging its majority despite seeing a drop of over 100,000 ballots from 2009.


2012 Galician regional election, Overview, Electoral system
The Parliament of Galicia was the devolved, unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Galicia, having legislative power in regional matters as defined by the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the regional Statute of Autonomy, as well as the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a regional president.


2012 Galician regional election, Overview, Electoral system
Voting for the Parliament was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over eighteen, registered in Galicia and in full enjoyment of their political rights. Amendments to the electoral law in 2011 required for Galicians abroad to apply for voting before being permitted to vote, a system known as "begged" or expat vote (Spanish: Voto rogado). The 75 members of the Parliament of Galicia were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of five percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Parties not reaching the threshold were not taken into consideration for seat distribution. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra, with each being allocated an initial minimum of 10 seats and the remaining 35 being distributed in proportion to their populations.


2012 Galician regional election, Overview, Electoral system
The use of the D'Hondt method might result in a higher effective threshold, depending on the district magnitude.


2012 Galician regional election, Overview, Election date
The term of the Parliament of Galicia expired four years after the date of its previous election, unless it was dissolved earlier. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the twenty-fifth day prior to the date of expiry of parliament and published on the following day in the Official Journal of Galicia (DOG), with election day taking place between the fifty-fourth and the sixtieth day from publication. The previous election was held on 1 March 2009, which meant that the legislature's term would have expired on 1 March 2013. The election decree was required to be published in the DOG no later than 5 February 2013, with the election taking place up to the sixtieth day from publication, setting the latest possible election date for the Parliament on Saturday, 6 April 2013.


2012 Galician regional election, Overview, Election date
The president had the prerogative to dissolve the Parliament of Galicia and call a snap election, provided that it did not occur before one year had elapsed since a previous dissolution under this procedure. In the event of an investiture process failing to elect a regional President within a two-month period from the first ballot, the Parliament was to be automatically dissolved and a fresh election called.


2012 Galician regional election, Overview, Election date
Speculation on the 2013 Galician election being held ahead of schedule emerged after opinion polls at the end of 2011—shortly after the 2011 Spanish general election which saw a landslide victory for the People's Party (PP) across Spain—pointed to an "historic absolute majority" for the party in the region. In February 2012, Galician president Alberto Núñez Feijóo had ruled out a snap election "before the summer", a decision that he reiterated after the Andalusian regional election on 25 March had seen the PP losing over 400,000 votes in comparison to the party's 2011 general election results in the region.