On This Day in 2002: Doomed Socialist favourite laughs off threat of Le Pen in presidential final

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, Socialist candidate in the 2002 presidential election, laughs after journalist John Paul Lepers asks on April 17, 2002, who Jospin will vote for if he doesn't advance past the first round. Four days later, far-right National Front candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen shocked the world when he made the presidential run-off; Jospin was eliminated. © France 24 screengrab/John Paul Lepers for Canal+ by permission

Any presidential campaign has its emblematic moments that change the course of the race, be they breathtaking instant tide-turners or incidents laden with meaning only in hindsight. With French voters set to elect a president on April 24, FRANCE 24 looks back at telling moments from campaigns past. In the spotlight: Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, the Socialist Party candidate, roars with laughter at the thought of not making it to the second round, even as the 2002 race rumbles towards disaster.

Just four days before the first round of the 2002 French presidential election, the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin, relaxed and smiling, sat down with a mischievous reporter keen for a game of political science fiction.