Socialists Celebrate as French Vote Nears Close
REUTERS.COM: France looked set to crown Francois Hollande as its first Socialist president in nearly two decades in an election on Sunday, marking a shift to the left at the heart of Europe and heralding a fight back against German-led austerity.

Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, swamped by anger at a surge in unemployment during his five-year term, faced being the 11th euro zoneleader to be swept from power by the economic crisis after final opinion polls placed Hollande between four and eight points ahead.

A wide margin of victory would give Hollande greater authority to pursue his promise to temper unpopular German-led austerity, which sparked protests across southern Europe last week, and refocusing economic policy on fostering growth.

In a decisive day for the recession-hit single currency area, Greece's mainstream political parties were punished in a parliamentary election for rising economic misery due to IMF-imposed spending cuts, exit polls showed.

Hollande cast his vote for the presidential runoff in the central town of Tulle, where he was mayor for seven years, shaking hands and kissing voters, many of whom he knows personally. "I am confident. I am sure," he told Reuters as he ate later in a local restaurant packed with Tulle residents.

In Paris's Bastille square, a flashpoint of the 1789 French Revolution and the Socialists' traditional gathering point for electoral celebrations, crowd barriers were already laid out in anticipation of an Hollande victory. Party supporters gathered in excitement two hours before the last polls closed, and giant television screens were erected.

In Tulle, Hollande supporters drove around the town honking car horns. » | Sybille de La Hamaide and Daniel Flynn | PARIS | Sunday, May 06, 2012

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French Election: Final Polls Suggest Swing to Nicolas Sarkozy

THE GUARDIAN: Defending president promises supporters a 'surprise' as Socialist rival François Hollande says he is certain of nothing

Socialist voters face a nervous wait for the results of today's presidential election runoff between Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande after final opinion polls following Wednesday's fiery television debate revealed a late surge in favour of the outgoing president, who has previously trailed his leftwing rival throughout the race.

The polls indicated that Hollande was still on track to win the second round runoff vote, but revealed that the gap between the presidential rivals had narrowed from 10 percentage points a week ago to just four. An Ifop poll for Paris-Match showed Hollande at 52% and Sarkozy at 48%.

On Friday, before the official midnight deadline for campaigning to end, Hollande warned his supporters not to consider the election as being in the bag. At his last campaign meeting in Périgueux in south-west France, he said the battle was not yet won.

"It's true that you are confident and you want to win. I feel it," he told the crowd. "I don't want to be a killjoy, but don't make what could be the fatal mistake of thinking that the game is already over … that you needn't turn out. I have to tell you that I am sure of nothing. This victory is still not certain." » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Saturday, May 05, 2012

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France Election: Nicolas Sarkozy Woos Far Right in National Front Heartlands
Ahead of Sunday's presidential run-off, French leader Nicolas Sarkozy says Francois Hollande and his Socialist party will bring only financial ruin to the country as he campaigns in the National Front heartlands.

Read the short article here | Thursday, May 03, 2012
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French Candidates Lock Horns in TV Debate
French President Nicolas Sarkozy locked horns with his Socialist rival Francois Hollande in a testy television duel that was billed as Sarkozy's last chance to save his chances of re-election on Sunday. Sarkozy went into the gruelling 2.5-hour television debate on Wednesday evening as the rank outsider. Polls show Hollande, who led the first round of the election on April 22, winning Sunday's run-off with between 53-54 per cent of the vote. Al Jazeera Andrew Simmons reports.

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Nicolas Sarkozy Hopes to 'Explode' François Hollande in Live TV Debate

THE GUARDIAN: Rivals for Élysée Palace meet in traditional set-piece of French presidential race with Sarkozy desperate to rein in Hollande

Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande are to face each other in a live TV debate on Wednesday night – a tense verbal showdown seen as the rightwing president's last chance to swing Sunday's presidential vote in his favour.

The French president is six to eight points behind the Socialist frontrunner Hollande in the polls, despite an aggressive campaign. Sarkozy has reportedly told ministers that he will use the debate to "explode" Hollande. Both candidates have warned they do not view the two-and-a-half-hour standoff as a "boxing match", but French newspapers were billing it as a fight for political survival: The Last Duel or The Final Confrontation.

With an expected 20 million viewers, the presidential TV debate is a classic set-piece in French politics. It makes more impact as a personality clash than a detailed deconstruction of manifestos. In the past it has produced scathing put-downs and killer one-liners, such as Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's snub to François Mitterrand "You do not have the monopoly of the heart", Mitterrand's belittling of Jacques Chirac, or Sarkozy telling the Socialist Ségolène Royal in 2007 that she had lost her nerve. » | Angelique Chrisafis in Paris | Wednesday, May 02, 2012

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France's Le Pen Refuses to Endorse Sarkozy
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has delivered a further blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy's hopes of re-election by refusing to endorse him and telling her six million supporters to make their own choice at Sunday's ballot.

"I will not grant my trust, or a mandate, to these two candidates," she told supporters on Tuesday at an annual commemoration of Joan of Arc, the national saint her group favours to the May Day celebrations held by international labour and leftist parties.

"On Sunday, I will cast a blank ballot." – Jacky Rowland reports.


Verwandt »

French Muslims Get Call to Vote for President
ASSOCIATED PRESS: PARIS — They are France's millions-strong minority with a voice that usually falls silent at election time. But this year, there is a special new effort to mobilize French Muslims to speak up at the ballot box in Sunday's presidential race — amid a surge of Islam-bashing among the French right.

Imams and Islamic associations are calling on Muslims to do their duty as citizens and go to the polls. And while they're not officially endorsing anyone, the call itself is a bold move in a country where statistics on religious affiliation are formally banned and where secularism is enshrined in the constitution.

Socialist Francois Hollande — the poll favorite — is more likely to benefit from the get-out-the-vote push, because conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy has spoken out against Muslim practices in his campaign and experts say that Muslims in poor neighborhoods and Muslim youth tend to vote for the left. But the Muslim vote is diverse, and there's no guarantee that the push will bring out voters, since Muslims have tended in the past to avoid politics.

French Muslims have been pounded with blame throughout the campaign for what they eat (halal meat), how they pray (in the street), and for allegedly using their growing numbers to supplant France's civilization with their own. The massacre of Jewish schoolchildren and French paratroopers in March by an alleged Islamic extremist put Muslims in the spotlight anew and fed far-right fear mongering. » | Elaine Ganley | AP | Monday, April 30, 2012

Rachida Dati, Immigrant's Daughter, Battles to Help Nicolas Sarkozy Win Back Far-Right Supporters

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: As Nicolas Sarkozy courts the far-Right vote in rural France, how can his favourite immigrant's daughter, Rachida Dati, help? She tells Kim Willsher why he must win.

Rachida Dati seems an unlikely figure to be wooing supporters of France's far right Front National party.

Needs must, however, and the daughter of a North African bricklayer who clawed her way to the top of the establishment ladder, before falling out of favour with President Nicolas Sarkozy, is now a key figure in his desperate battle to salvage his political career.

In his hour of need, Mr Sarkozy is rallying the troops to win over the 6.4 million French electors who voted for Marine Le Pen in the first round of the presidential election a week ago.

In response to being returned to the fold as one of the president's cheerleaders, Miss Dati has launched a spirited defence of what critics have called a "moral fault" by the current president, accusing him of veering dangerously into FN territory to save his skin.

"You cannot say that these people, 18 per cent of the electorate, are racists and xenophobic. It's not true," Miss Dati told The Sunday Telegraph in an exclusive interview.

"I have met and talked to FN voters and they are exasperated and afraid that the socialists will come to power. They are worried about Europe being a colander in terms of immigration, they are worried about companies moving elsewhere, they are worried about jobs and the cost of living, and security.

"It's for us to say to the FN voters, 'We have heard your preoccupations', to say to them that while the FN may have raised some good questions, it has proposed no solutions except rejecting others, creating scapegoats and the politics of hatred." » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Sunday, April 29, 2012

Far Right Voters to Play Key Role [in] Final Stage of French Election Campaign

THE GUARDIAN: The 6.4m voters who backed Marine Le Pen in the first round are likely to play a decisive role in the final run-off

Are there really 6.4 million fascists, racists or xenophobes in France? Not at all, says the French political class. Yet this question continues to dominate the final stages of the French presidential election campaign.

The Socialist François Hollande topped the first round vote on 22 April ahead of the rightwing president, Nicolas Sarkozy, creating a dynamic for the left. But Hollande and Sarkozy now face each other in a final run-off on 6 May that is far from clear cut.

The far right dominates headlines after the Front National's Marine Le Pen came third, with the party's highest ever score of 17.9%. Her 6.4 million voters now hold the result in the balance.

Sarkozy has little chance of being re-elected unless he wins over a majority of Le Pen's voters. For the unpopular president, things are extremely difficult but, political experts say, not totally impossible.

Analysts say he needs the support of around 80% of Le Pen voters to win. Polls – which vary wildly – show on average around half Le Pen voters voting Sarkozy, 20% choosing Hollande and 30% abstaining or spoiling their ballot. Sarkozy's camp says all is to play for, despite recent polls showing Hollande winning.

Meanwhile, the political class is soul-searching about what the strong Le Pen vote says about France. » | Angelique Chrisafis in Paris | Thursday, April 26, 2012

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French Rivals Scramble to Seduce Le Pen Voters
REUTERS.COM: France's presidential rivals scrambled on Tuesday to seduce nearly a fifth of the electorate that voted for far right anti-immigration crusader Marine Le Pen, voicing sympathy for voters' distress in the economic crisis.

Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, fighting for his political life after being beaten into second place in Sunday's first round, hammered away at Le Pen's themes of fear of immigration, insecurity and industrial decline at public rallies and in media interviews.

"I want to talk to the little people, to the foot soldiers, to people in the countryside, to pensioners," Sarkozy told a public rally, saying the National Front leader had drawn a "crisis vote" in "the part of France that is suffering".

"You are feeling afraid," he said. "I have heard you."

Socialist challenger Francois Hollande, who topped Sunday's vote and is favorite to win a May 6 runoff, said in an interview with left-wing daily Liberation: "It's up to me to convince the voters of the National Front." » | Alexandria Sage and Yann Le Guernigou | PARIS | Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Myra MacDonald | Tuesday, April 24, 2012

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France Election: Sarkozy Seeks Key Far-right Votes

BBC: French President Nicolas Sarkozy is wooing far-right voters after losing narrowly to his Socialist rival in the presidential election's first round.

Francois Hollande came top with 28.6% and Mr Sarkozy got 27.1% - the first time a sitting president has lost in the first round.

Third-place Marine Le Pen took the largest share of the vote her far-right National Front has ever won, with 18%.

Referring to her voters, Mr Sarkozy said: "I have heard you."

"There was this crisis vote that doubled from one election to another - an answer must be given to this crisis vote," he said.

In a speech to supporters in Tours, Mr Sarkozy also blamed "a media unleashed" for his first round result.

"We were campaigning against caricatures and lies... and I thank you for your support," he said.

Pollsters say Mr Hollande is the clear favourite to win the second round on 6 May, a duel between him and Mr Sarkozy, who leads the centre-right UMP.

If Mr Hollande wins he will become the first Socialist president in France in 17 years.

Intense campaigning has resumed, with Mr Sarkozy travelling to Tours in the Loire Valley, central France, while Mr Hollande went to the western towns of Quimper and Lorient, in Brittany.

Speaking to around 3,000 rain-drenched supporters in Quimper, one of his strongholds, Mr Hollande described himself as the candidate of change.

He said he wanted to speak to all French people, not just the left or right.

"My message? We are a large country and we will recover - we have no need of divisions," he said. » | Monday, April 23, 2012

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Le Pen Damages Sarkozy's Election Chances
Nicolas Sarkozy became the first incumbent French president to lose in the first round of voting but all eyes were on the Marine Le Pen and her far-right party's success with 18% of the vote. WSJ's Grainne McCarthy reports from Paris.

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Far Right Rallies Faithful Against EU, Immigration


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France Election 2012: One in Five Vote for Marine Le Pen as Nicolas Sarkozy Is Beaten Into Second Place

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Marine Le Pen secured the highest score for the far-Right in French presidential election history on Sunday, in a third-place finish that will present a major challenge to the two mainstream candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois [sic] Hollande, left in the race.

According to official forecasts, the 43-year-old daughter of the founder of the National Front (NF) secured between 18.2 and 20 per cent of the vote, performing even better than Jean Marie Le Pen’s shock result in 2002, when he won 17 per cent. At her press conference on Sunday night she burst into a rendition of La Marseillaise in front of delirious supporters waving the national flag.

“Whatever happens over the next two weeks, the battle for France has only just begun,” she said.

“We have exploded the monopoly of the two [main] parties of banks, finance, of multinationals, of resignation and abandonment, and carried higher than ever before the hopes of national ideas.

“Faced with an incumbent president at the head of a considerably weakened party, we are the only opposition to the ultra-liberal, lax and libertarian Left.”

Although it failed to take her into the second round, Miss Le Pen’s success will boost her influence on the French political scene, and is likely to hand her party seats in parliament later in the year. It could affect relations with minorities in France and in other European countries after a campaign based on rhetoric against immigrants, Islam and the European Union. » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Sunday, April 22, 2012

My comment:

France needs Marine Le Pen. France, like the UK, is tiring of the two main parties. They do nothing for France, French culture. And culture France has in abundance.

The UK had culture in abundance once too; but these days nobody stands up for it – at least not in the two main parties. If one doesn't stand up for one's culture, the culture will soon disappear – it will be swamped.

How Britain needs its own Le Pen! How Britain needs to shock the establishment into action! Would that Le Pen were a force in Britain. I, for one, despair of the same old claptrap we get in the UK. We were once a proud nation; and now? We are just a shadow of our former selves. We apologise for this, shutting the people up here and there, and refusing to stand proud.

The Conservatives, the Socialists, the Liberals – they're ALL the same: Limp-wristed, craven, spineless, and weak to a man. Oh for our own Marine Le Pen! If not for office, then certainly to shake things up. – © Mark

This comment also appears here.


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Marine Le Pen Scores Stunning Result in French Presidential Election

THE GUARDIAN: With between 18% and 20% of the vote, the far-right candidate has beaten the previous record for Front National

In the run up to Sunday's first round presidential vote, it was hard to find many people in France publicly admitting they intended to vote for Marine Le Pen. Nevertheless between 18% and 20% appear to have done so – a stunning result for the far right.

It was a record for France's Front National, beating the previous best in 2002 when Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie, won his way into the second-round run-off with 17% of votes.

The surprise score reflected not only how Marine, a 43-year-old lawyer, made inroads into the French political landscape during a campaign in which she relentlessly challenged the "established" candidates, but also a deep disillusion with the main parties. She has now become the third force in the presidential campaign and a possible kingmaker in the second-round run-off in two weeks's time. » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Sunday, April 22, 2012

Al Jazeera Speaks to Christian Malard
Al Jazeera speaks to Christian Malard, a French journalist, about the first round of the country's presidential election.

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France Votes in Presidential Election
Voting is in full swing across France in the first round of the country's presidential election. The poll is largely being seen as a referendum on Nicolas Sarkozy's time in the top job. Al Jazeera's Tim Friend reports from Paris, France.

François Hollande: The Socialist 'Pup' On Course to Become France's Next Leader

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Jacques Chirac once joked that François Hollande, the bashful Socialist pup sent to challenge him in his rural power base, was less well known than François Mitterrand's labrador.

Today, Mr Hollande is on course to succeed the late Mr Mitterrand as France's first Socialist President in 24 years, and the quiet man of French politics is finding it increasingly hard to conceal his glee.

Riding high in the polls ahead of Sunday's first round vote, France's self-styled Mr Normal told a crowd of 12,000 in Bordeaux at his final rally: "Nicolas Sarkozy said he could see a wave rising. For once he was right. The wave's coming; it's high, its strong, and it's going to smack him in the face".

"François President, we're going to win," the crowd chanted back. » | Henry Samuel, Bordeaux | Friday, April 20, 2012

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Nicolas Sarkozy is a victim of his own courage: The president should be applauded for his courage, hard work, plain-speaking and his love for France. » | Anne-Elisabeth Moutet | Friday, April 20, 2012

THE WASHINGTON POST: French prez race all about emotion: Fear of finance and Islam, anger at Sarkozy and the rich: PARIS — Like Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy swept to power on a wave of hope for change. Sarkozy’s wave crashed on the global financial crisis and his own failings. On Sunday, the French leader faces a tough fight against nine challengers in presidential elections awash in fear and anger. » | Associated Press | Friday, April 20, 2012

Immigration Key Issue in French Election
The French presidential election campaign enters its final stages as all the candidates will be holding their final campaign rallies, ahead of the first round of voting on Sunday. Along with the economy, immigration has become an issue for the electorate. Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reports from the port of Marseille where half of the population have parents who were born outside France.

Distance between Europe's Cozy Couple
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made internal security a focus of his presidential election campaign, and his ratings have soared over his handling of a series of shootings. But his focus on domestic events is putting pressure on his historically strong relationship with German leader Angela Merkel. Al Jazeera's Nick Spicer reports from Berlin.