For many months before the 1995 French presidential election, Édouard Balladur, the incumbent(现任的，在职的) prime minister, seemed certain of victory. Opinion polls consistently gave him a lead(领先，优势) over his conservative rival Jacques Chirac, and the main leftwing candidate. But, as other politicians have discovered, polls can be misleading and voters change their minds(改变主意). When the ballot papers were counted it was Chirac who won and succeeded François Mitterrand as president.(当选票清点完毕时，获胜的是希拉克，他接替密特朗成为总统。)
在1995年法国总统大选前的数月里，时任总理爱德华·巴拉迪尔似乎胜券在握。民意调查持续显示，他领先于保守派对手雅克·希拉克以及主要的左翼候选人。但正如其他政治家所发现的那样，民调可能具有误导性，选民也会改变主意。当选票清点完毕时，获胜的是希拉克，他接替弗朗索瓦·密特朗成为总统。
The defeat of Balladur, who has died aged 97, was due partly to his lack of appeal to young voters, a consequence of his public image which, somewhat unfairly, was that of an aloof(冷漠的，疏远的) aristocrat. When he first became a minister, the satirical weekly newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné(法国讽刺周报《鸭鸣报》) dubbed(戏称，给……起绰号) him “his courteous self-importance” and Le Monde’s cartoonist Plantu depicted(描绘，刻画) him as a bewigged 18th-century nobleman being carried around in a sedan chair(轿子). His manner and style – three-piece English tailored suits, dislike (figuratively and literally) of getting his hands dirty(弄脏手，参与不体面的事) and obvious distaste for close personal contact – did not play well(效果好，受欢迎) in the context of a presidential contest.
巴拉迪尔已于97岁高龄去世，他的败选部分归因于他对年轻选民缺乏吸引力，而这源于他的公众形象——有点不公平地——被看作一位冷漠的贵族。当他初任部长时，讽刺周刊《鸭鸣报》称他为“礼貌的自负”，《世界报》的漫画家普朗蒂厄将他描绘成一位戴着假发的18世纪贵族，坐在轿子里被人抬着走。他的举止和风格——三件套英式定制西装、不喜欢（无论比喻意义还是字面意义上）弄脏双手，以及对亲密身体接触的明显厌恶——在总统竞选中并不讨喜。
There was nothing aristocratic(贵族的，贵族气派的) in Balladur’s background, however, about which he maintained a certain mystery. He was born in Smyrna, now Izmir, in Turkey, the youngest of the six children of Pierre Balladur, the manager of a local branch of an Ottoman bank, and Émilie (nee Latour). His parents became naturalised(入籍的，归化的) French citizens in 1932 and the family moved to France when Édouard was six, settling in(定居，安顿下来) Marseille, where he went to school at the Lycée Thiers(蒂耶尔中学，法国著名公立中学).
然而，巴拉迪尔的出身并无贵族色彩，但他对此保持了一定的神秘感。他出生于土耳其的士麦那（现称伊兹密尔），是皮埃尔·巴拉迪尔和埃米莉（娘家姓拉图尔）六个孩子中最小的一个。皮埃尔是一家奥斯曼银行当地分行的经理。他的父母于1932年成为法国公民，全家在爱德华六岁时移居法国，在马赛定居，他在那里就读于蒂耶尔中学。