France's Sarkozy, Royal brace for election showdown

Paris, Apr 23: Conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy has clinched a commanding lead in the opening round of France's presidential election and will face Socialist Segolene Royal in a run-off on May 6 that hinges on centrist voters.

Sarkozy, a former interior minister, looked placed to win the decisive vote, with four opinion polls predicting late yesterday that he would dash Royal's dream of becoming France's first women president.

A massive turnout re-established the normal left-right supremacy in France, five years after voters shocked Europe by putting far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the second round.

With almost all the ballots counted, Sarkozy had 31.1 per cent of the vote, Royal was on 25.8 per cent, centrist Francois Bayrou had 18.5 per cent and Le Pen just 10.5 per cent.

Both Sarkozy and Royal immediately sought to reach out beyond their respective camps, portraying themselves as a healing force for France's economic and social ills.

''Today, I no longer just belong to Socialist supporters, but I must go beyond that to get the entire left together, the environmentalists and even go beyond that,'' Royal told several hundred Socialist activists at party headquarters.

Sarkozy, looking to soften his image as an authoritarian hardliner, told a rally of ecstatic party faithful that he wanted to unite France in a ''fraternal'' society.

''The France I dream of is a France that leaves no-one behind, a France which is like a family, where the weakest, the most vulnerable, the most fragile have the right to as much love, as much respect and as much attention as the strongest,'' he said.

Leading the field in the first round does not guarantee ultimate success. Twice in the last five elections, in 1974 and 1995, the first-round winner lost the run-off.

Nightmare Overcome

Jubilant Socialist fans waved red roses at news Royal had made it through to the run-off, relieved there was no repeat of the nightmare of 2002, when Le Pen tapped into a big protest vote and eliminated their candidate. But Royal, who has been dogged by questions about her competence after campaign gaffes, faces a daunting challenge.

The combined score for leftist candidates yesterday was little more than 35 per cent, amid signs that France has shifted distinctly to the right. She will have to hope Bayrou's voters, traditionally right-leaning, turn her way en masse.

Aware that he could swing the balance after his vote almost tripled from 2002, Bayrou refused to say immediately who he would support on May 6.

''All decisions I have to make in the coming days, all stands we have to take, will be inspired by one conviction: a new policy is rising and no one will stop it,'' he said.

The election marks a generational shift for France, with conservative President Jacques Chirac, 74, retiring after 12 years in power. Both Sarkozy and Royal are in their early 50s.

Whoever replaces Chirac will inherit a fractured country that has the highest unemployment rate of any major industrial power and multi-ethnic suburbs simmering with discontent.

Sarkozy wants the French to work harder and pay less tax, and is promising swift reforms to curb union powers, slim government and toughen sentencing for repeat offenders.

Royal, a regional leader who has held only junior government posts, has promised to raise the minimum wage, create 500,000 jobs for young workers and wants to reward companies that innovate and invest in France.

Both candidates will immediately hit the campaign trail today. Sarkozy addresses a rally in the eastern city of Dijon and Royal travels to Valence in southern France.

The two will hold a potentially decisive head-to-head television debate on May 2.

French stock markets could rise today in relief that the shock of 2002 has not been repeated, analysts said.

Le Pen secured his lowest vote in three elections and will almost certainly not stand in another presidential poll. But he could still influence parliamentary elections in June that will decide how the next head of state can form a government.

Reuters