Running for big cheese in France

Incumbent Jacques Chirac faces a record number of challengers for the presidency

PARIS, France (CNN) -- It was former French president Charles de Gaulle who complained about the impossibility of governing a country with so many different kinds of cheeses with so much individuality.

Now that same trait has roused nearly two dozen people into seeking to be the big cheese -- the president of France.

Never before have there been so many candidates handshaking their way across the country.

The main ones are the current president, Jacques Chirac, and his newfound adversary, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. But there are also ecologists, feminists, communists and candidates from the extreme right and the extreme left in the running.

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There is a hunter representing hunters, and a postman who advocates a four-day work week and legalized marijuana.

Not all candidates will become officially certified; to do that a hopeful must present petitions signed by 500 elected officials such as mayors -- of which France has more than 36,000.

But it is worth a shot -- because a candidate who does get his or her name on the ballot is automatically eligible for a $140,000 advance from the government to pay campaign expenses, and up to $13.5 million in matching funds.

But whatever their reason for throwing their berets into the ring, all of those candidates make it a virtual certainty that no one will win a majority of votes -- enough to become president -- on the first round of the elections April 21.

Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin leads the field of challengers

When you look at the public opinion polls and start dividing things up, you discover that so many people are taking a bite out of the electoral cheese that whoever does eventually win the presidency after run-off elections May 5 will have to admit that he or she was the first choice of less than one-fourth of the electorate.

No real shock though, since it has long been said here that just as with their cheeses, the French make their first selection based on emotion...and the second based on more serious concerns.