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
President of the European Commission This became evident when numerous candidates were put forward in 2004, and a centre-right vote won out over left-wing groups, France and Germany. José Manuel Barroso, elected Commission President that year, was then forced to back down over his choice of Commissioners, owing to Parliament's threat that it would not approve his Commission. In 2009, the European People's Party endorsed Barroso as its candidate for Commission President, and the EPP subsequently retained its position as largest party in that year's election. The Socialists responded by pledging to put forward a rival candidate at future elections. Once again, Barroso was forced