I examine turnout and participation decision for the 2007 French presidential election. I find strong support for the expressive voting theory. More specifically, partisan identification is a strong predictor both for turnout and participation decision, as are ideological and emotional variables. I also find that the more the ideological gap, between a voter and his candidate is, higher is the probability that this voter votes for extreme right. Extreme right voters are ideologically far from their candidate because they desire to reflect a more moderate and compassion identity. Emotion variables, like leadership ability or hope, enable extreme right voters to counterbalance the ideological distance they have with their candidate and to vote for this party.
