Sarkozy edged by Hollande in French election; Le Pen surges
Far-right takes nearly a fifth of first round votes
Far-rightist Marine Le Pen threw France’s presidential race wide open on Sunday by polling nearly 19 per cent in the first round — votes that may tip a runoff between Socialist favourite Francois Hollande and conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Hollande led Sarkozy by 28.2 per cent to 27 per cent with more than four-fifths of votes counted, the Interior Ministry said, meaning the two will meet head-to-head in a decider on May 6 that may be closer than pundits expected.
Le Pen’s record score of 18.6 per cent was the sensation of the night, beating her father’s 2002 result and outpolling hard leftist Jean-luc Melenchon in fourth place with 10.9 per cent. Centrist Francois Bayrou finished fifth with 9.2 per cent.
Hollande, 57, told cheering supporters he was best placed to lead France toward change and declared: “My final duty, and I know I’m being watched from beyond our borders, is to put Europe back on the path of growth and employment.”
Sarkozy, who has led the world’s fifth largest economy for five years, responded defiantly to his setback — the first time in the 54-year history of the present electoral system that a sitting president seeking re-election had been beaten into second place in the first round.
In a rousing speech, he challenged the Socialist to three television debates over the next two weeks instead of the customary one, and vowed in response to Le Pen’s surge to tighten border controls, stop factories leaving France, make work pay and defend law and order.
Two opinion polls taken during Sunday’s voting by the IPSOS and Ifop institutes suggested the Socialist would beat the incumbent by 54 to 46 per cent in the second round. But much yet depends on how each appeals to supporters of Le Pen and others. “Sarkozy is going to be torn between campaigning in the middle ground and campaigning on the right. He’ll have to reach out to the right between the rounds and so he’ll lose the centre,” said Stephane Rozes of the CAP think-tank.
Le Pen, who took over the antiimmigration National Front in 2011, wants jobs reserved for French nationals at a time when jobless claims are at a 12-year high. She wants France to abandon the euro currency and restore monetary policy to Paris. “This first round is the start of a vast gathering of right-wing patriots,” she told cheering supporters at her campaign headquarters, without endorsing either finalist and slamming Sarkozy. “Nothing will ever be the same again.”
Le Pen’s unexpectedly high score reflected a surge in anti-establishment populist parties in many eurozone countries from the Netherlands to Greece as austerity and the debt crisis bite.
The IPSOS survey suggested 60 per cent of Le Pen’s voters would back Sarkozy in the second round, while Ifop put the proportion at 48 per cent, with one in five voting for Hollande. Le Pen said she would give her view on the second round in a speech at a May Day rally in Paris a week on Tuesday.
Sarkozy’s closest supporters in- sisted he still had a fighting chance now that the president is facing a single challenger instead of nine in the first round.
“Nothing is in the bag yet,” said Foreign Minister Alain Juppe.
If Hollande wins, joining a small minority of left-wing governments in Europe, he has promised to renegotiate a European budget discipline treaty signed by Sarkozy. That could presage tension with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who made the pact a condition for further assistance to troubled eurozone states.