President of France to. He was succeeded by Nicolas Sarkozy on 16 May 2007. Following a further change, the constitutional law on the modernisation of the institutions of the Fifth Republic, 2008, a President cannot serve more than two consecutive terms. François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac are the only Presidents to date who have served a full two terms (14 years for the former, 12 years for the latter). In order to be admitted as an official candidate, potential candidates must receive signed nominations (informally known as "parrainages", for "sponsors") from more than 500 elected officials, mostly mayors. These officials must be from
Who's Who in France Who's Who in France Who's Who in France is a biographical dictionary published in France and written in French. In France it is simply "le "Who's Who"". The first edition of "Who's Who in France" was published in 1953 by Jacques Lafitte. In 1974, Marie-Thérèse Lafitte succeeded her husband after his death. In 1984 the company was bought by Antoine Hébrard. At the beginning of the new millennium, a special book was written by Béatrice and Michel Wattel about the deceased people who were in "Who's Who in France" during their lifetime. The second edition (2005, printed in 2004) is