French presidential candidates campaign to end

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Paris, May 4: France's presidential candidates prepared for a final day of campaigning ahead of Sunday's vote with all opinion polls pointing to a victory for right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy over Socialist Segolene Royal.

Royal will spend today in Brittany, in western France, where she will be hoping to win over any undecided voters who could help her close the gap with her rival and make her France's first woman president.

Sarkozy, who has topped every opinion poll since leading in the first round vote on April 22, will visit the Alps.

Campaigning must end at midnight tonight ahead of voting in some of France's overseas territories on Saturday. The rest of the nation will vote on Sunday.

Both candidates have tried to appeal to voters of other parties to boost their scores ahead of the ballot.

Speaking yesterday in Montpellier in southern France, Sarkozy promised to bring people together ''without hatred'' in a ''disparate coalition''.

Royal, speaking at a rally in Lille in the north, dared the French to pick a woman and asked her supporters to use their ''positive energy'' to convince ''those who are still hesitating.'' The pair went head to head in a prime-time live television debate on Wednesday evening.

Media commentators generally judged the debate a draw but opinion polls carried out afterwards said Sarkozy had extended his lead.

Royal came out fighting from the start but she failed to dent Sarkozy's aura of competence and appeared bad tempered.

A CSA survey for today's Le Parisien daily gave him a score of 53 percent compared to her 47 per cent.

One event that could make ripples in the campaign today, is a board and shareholder meeting of Airbus parent company EADS where they are due to decide whether to back a dividend payout for investors.

Airbus has said it would cut 10,000 jobs across Europe after delays to the firm's super jumbo project but the company's former boss still walked away with a 8.5 million euro payout.

The huge sum has angered many French and put executive payouts on the campaign agenda, sparking accusations that Sarkozy's ruling UMP party favoured big businesses and the rich.

Sarkozy, a right-wing former interior minister and the favourite of financial markets, has hammered young hoodlums, illegal immigrants and enthused supporters with his attacks on the left wing protesters of May 1968.

Hated and feared as a dangerous authoritarian by many on the left, he has nonetheless been consistently rated the more ''presidential'' of the two candidates by most voters.

Royal has struggled to shed an image of fuzzy inconsistency that has clung to her throughout the campaign after a series of gaffes that were highlighted by the media.

Reuters>

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