HOLLANDEWINSROUND ONE IN FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
FAR RIGHT MAKES BIG GAINS
PARIS, April 23, 2012 (AFP) - Duelling left-right rivals Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy launched the race for the French presidential run-off on Monday, a race shaken up by the far-right's record first-round score.socialist Hollande and the rightwing Sarkozy are to face off in a May 6 second round, but the big surprise of Sunday's first round was the record score for anti-immigrant, anti-eu flag-bearer Marine Le Pen.
Hollande won 28.56 percent of the vote, beating Sarkozy's 27.07, and Le Pen won a best-ever 18.12 percent, according to near-complete interior ministry results.
Hollande told a victory rally in his rural political stronghold of Tulle late Sunday that he was now the obvious frontrunner for the post.
“The choice is simple, either continue policies that have failed with a divisive incumbent candidate or raise France up again with a new, unifying president,” Hollande said. Explaining his poor showing as the result of a first round “vote of crisis” amid global economic chaos, Sarkozy told his supporters: “These anxieties, this suffering, I know them, I understand them.”
Sarkozy had sought to put positive spin on the result and brandished his rightwing credentials in a clear nod to Le Pen supporters, despite being the first incumbent to lose a first round vote in modern French history.
Explaining his poor showing as the result of a first round “vote of crisis” amid global economic chaos, Sarkozy told his supporters: “These anxieties, this suffering, I know them, I understand them.”
They are about respecting our borders, Hollande and the right-wing Sarkozy are to face off in a May 6 second round, the determined fight against job relocation, controlling immigration, putting value on work, on security,” he said, hitting on a number of key right-wing themes. A jubilant Le Pen addressed her supporters after her National Front party's best ever showing, saying: “The battle of France has just begun ... we have exploded the monopoly of the two parties”