THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: An embarrassing split between President Nicolas Sarkozy and his prime minister, François Fillon, emerged on Tuesday over how to deal with the threat from France's far-Right National Front.Marine Le Pen's National Front (FN) made historic gains in the first round of local elections on Sunday, only trailing Mr Sarkozy's UMP party by two percentage points on 15 per cent.
The Socialists, who came top on 25 per cent, are calling for a "Republic front" against the FN in next Sunday's second round, where the far-Right is present in almost 400 "cantons" in the country's 100 departments. The Left is urging its supporters to vote UMP in cantons where it is an also-ran to keep the FN out.
Several UMP moderates called on its electorate to vote tactically. But Mr Sarkozy refused to explicitly urge his supporters to vote for the Left in the 200 or so cantons where the race is between Socialists and the FN. He told party leaders that a call to vote Socialist "would be tantamount to sending a signal of collusion between the UMP and Socialist Party".
However, on Monday night, prime minister Fillon, who has reportedly been ill at ease with attempts by Mr Sarkozy to veer Right to attract FN support, caused confusion by telling UMP members: "You must vote against the National Front". » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Tuesday, March 22, 2011
