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The 2012 French presidential election has been framed by economic issues. This article assesses the impact of the perceptions of economic conditions on voting decisions for this election. Building first on the concept of retrospective sociotropic economic voting, the article shows that the impact of economic conditions is statistically significant but has limited explanatory power. Looking second at the link between economic attitudes and voting decisions, we find stable patterns comparable to previous results, yet public debt appears for the first time as a vector of issue voting. Overall, the limited negative impact of economic conditions on the support for Nicolas Sarkozy was partially compensated by the emergence of the issue of budgetary orthodoxy.