France's Sarkozy, Royal offer centrist concessions
PARIS, Apr 29 (Reuters) French presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal proposed concessions to lure key centrist voters today as they entered the last week of campaigning.
Addressing 20,000 supporters in a packed Paris sports arena, right-wing candidate Sarkozy, who is ahead of Royal in opinion polls, said he wanted to bring French voters together.
Royal and Sarkozy need to win over some of the 7 million who voted for defeated centrist Francois Bayrou, who came third in the first-round vote, if they are to win the May 6 run-off.
At his slick, US-style rally, Sarkozy said he would consider introducing some proportional representation into French elections, a demand of both centrists and the far-right.
''I pledge ... to bring together all the political forces and discuss with them the possibility of introducing a bit of proportional representation at the Senate or National Assembly,'' he said, referring to the upper and lower houses of parliament.
France's two-round voting system favours larger parties and strong ruling majorities, reducing many parties to only a few seats and some, such as the far-right National Front, which is backed by more than 10 percent of voters, to no seats at all.
In a bid to court Bayrou's voters, Royal took the unusual step of appearing in a television debate with him yesterday.
Sarkozy has refused a public debate with Bayrou.
STARS AND SWEAT Royal, 53, also made a play for the centrist vote today.
She told Canal Plus television she did not rule out nominating Bayrou as her prime minister if elected and appeared to offer his voters changes to her programme as well.
''Not only am I ready to add to it, but tomorrow, if I am elected president, all good ideas will be useful for the country,'' she said.
She is facing a difficult balancing act between gaining the confidence of the centrists and making sure she does not lose the confidence of the voters on the far-left.
Polls show that Royal needs to convince centrists her policies are credible, while Sarkozy must try to shed his aggressive image.
At his celebrity-studded rally, where the crowd cheered star guests such as actor Jean Reno and former Formula One driver Alain Prost, Sarkozy presented himself as a conciliatory figure.
''I want to speak to voters of the centre, whose values are so similar to ours. I want to tell them that their sensibilities have all their place in the presidential majority I want to build,'' he said.
Many of the deputies from Bayrou's UDF party, which has traditionally formed alliances with right-wing governments, have said they will vote for Sarkozy, who has promised to have UDF ministers in his government if he is elected.
Sarkozy, 52, also railed against the heritage of the student protest movement of May 1968, accusing it of crushing excellence in favour of equality, and creating a state where people such as Royal's left think only of their rights and not of their duties.
''I want to turn the page of May '68 once and for all,'' Sarkozy said, sweating profusely in the hot indoor stadium, where thousands more were watching his speech outside.
''I propose to the French people to bring morals, authority, respect, work, the nation back to politics,'' he said.
Royal and Sarkozy will hold a hotly-awaited prime time television debate on Wednesday evening which is seen as the grand finale of the presidential campaign.
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