Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, a conservative president of France from 1974 to 1981, was not reelected. He ascribed his defeat — by less than 1 % of the vote against François Mitterrand, the socialist challenger — to the Jewish community, which resented his pro-Arab policies. From then on and as long as he entertained the hope to run again, he made sure to appear as a friend of Israel.
Nicolas Sarkozy, another conservative, played openly the Jewish and pro-Israel card in 2007 and was elected. He may have forfeited this on September 21 by delivering a pro-Palestinian speech at the UN General Assembly in Manhattan.