Al hamdu lillah, Sarkozy poised to win presidential election. Vive la belle France!

Photos of Royal and Sarkozy courtesy of the BBC

BBC: France's presidential candidates are staging their final day of campaigning ahead of Sunday's vote.

The latest opinion polls suggest that conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has a firm lead over Socialist Segolene Royal after Wednesday's TV debate. French poll rivals in final push (Read on)

WATCH BBC VIDEO: Final push for French rivals

WATCH BBC VIDEO: French rivals take final shots

Mark Alexander

Sarkozy: The Man for Our Times
Sarkozy is not only a very likeable fellow, but he is one politician in Europe who speaks sense about the question of whether to allow Turkey to accede to the EU. M. Sarkozy is against Turkey’s accession, and he is not afraid of saying so, either. Not only does France need this politician to be elected into the office of the presidency, but the rest of Europe does, too.

Whether or not to allow Turkey into Europe is one of the burning issues of our time. Very few politicians have the insight or the courage tospeak up about it. Nicolas Sarkozy does have that courage, and he is a man of insight, too. Sarkozy has all the right instincts; furthermore, Sarkozy has the right ideas on how to re-invogorate la belle France.

It is to be hoped that this very likeable man will become France’s next president. The French electorate will be doing all Europeans a big favour to vote for Sarkozy.

You might like to watch the following videos, presented to us by Le Figaro. They are snippets of the lengthy televised dual:

VIDEOS: Délinquance, Turquie... Tout les oppose

VIDEOS: A 22 h 55, l'incident sur les handicaps

VIDEOS: L'économie au coeur des passes d'armes

NZZ: Sarkozy geht als Favorit in die Stichwahl in die Stichwahl

©Mark Alexander

Royal greift Sarkozy in TV-Duell an

Foto dank der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung

NZZ: Präsidentschaftskandidaten in Frankreich streiten vor Millionenpublikum

Beim Fernseh-Duell zur französischen Präsidentschaftswahl hat Ségolène Royal den Konservativen Nicolas Sarkozy wegen dessen Bilanz als langjähriges Mitglied der bürgerlichen Regierung angegriffen.

Royal selbst wolle als Staatschefin ein Frankreich schaffen, «in dem die Aggressivität und die Gewalttaten zurückgehen», sagte die Sozialistin zum Auftakt der mit Spannung erwarteten Live-Diskussion im französischen Fernsehen. Royal greift Sarkozy in TV-Duell an (mehr)

©Mark Alexander

Royal Displays Determination to Keep Sarkozy Out of the Élysée Even At Cost of Fighting Dirty
FINANCIAL TIMES: The French presidential race took a surprise turn on Monday night when Ségolène Royal, the Socialist, said she had invited François Bayrou, her centrist rival, to discuss forming a centre-left alliance to block Nicolas Sarkozy, their centre-right opponent.

Ms Royal, who defied her critics by coming a comfortable second behind Mr Sarkozy in Sunday’s first round with almost 26 per cent support, said she had left a phone message for Mr Bayrou, who came a strong third, offering “a public debate”. Royal invites Bayrou to form alliance by Martin Arnold, John Thornhill and Adam Jones

Mark Alexander