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Desperate Sarko woos far-right
President Nicolas Sarkozy has starkly laid out his path to re-election: He will be plunging deep into far-right territory to hunt the votes he needs to beat Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in the runoff.
A day after Hollande won a slim upper hand in the first round of voting, Sarkozy candidly ogled voters of the far-right National Front whose candidate, Marine Le Pen, placed a solid third. She gave the party its highest-ever score, nearly 18 per cent — close to one-in-five voters and the biggest surprise of Sunday’s first-round vote.
Le Pen and her anti-immigration party want to pull France out of the euro currency, reinstate border controls, crack down on immigrants, and stamp out what she claims is the Islamisation of France.
“The word ‘protectionism’ isn’t a dirty word,” Sarkozy said Monday during a rousing speech in Saint-Cyr-Sur-Loire, near Tours, southwest of Paris.
Protecting the French identity, French civilisation, French borders, French workers, French youth, French retirees were all on Sarkozy’s agenda — and all are themes dear to the National Front.
Sarkozy and Hollande, both 57, used their first post-election speeches to lure far-right voters to their respective camps ahead of the May 6 final round. But Hollande did so more softly.
The math is brutal. Hollande won 28.6 per cent of Sunday’s vote, Sarkozy won 27.2 per cent and both need votes from Le Pen’s far right to climb over 50 per cent — but mostly Sarkozy. Hollande is expected to get many of the backers of far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon who won 11 per cent. The 9 per cent who voted for centrist candidate Francois Bayrou are also in play.
Sarkozy named the National Front, and in a bid to destigmatise those who vote for the far-right party, said he respects them.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has starkly laid out his path to re-election: He will be plunging deep into far-right territory to hunt the votes he needs to beat Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in the runoff.
A day after Hollande won a slim upper hand in the first round of voting, Sarkozy candidly ogled voters of the far-right National Front whose candidate, Marine Le Pen, placed a solid third. She gave the party its highest-ever score, nearly 18 per cent — close to one-in-five voters and the biggest surprise of Sunday’s first-round vote.
Le Pen and her anti-immigration party want to pull France out of the euro currency, reinstate border controls, crack down on immigrants, and stamp out what she claims is the Islamisation of France.
“The word ‘protectionism’ isn’t a dirty word,” Sarkozy said Monday during a rousing speech in Saint-Cyr-Sur-Loire, near Tours, southwest of Paris.
Protecting the French identity, French civilisation, French borders, French workers, French youth, French retirees were all on Sarkozy’s agenda — and all are themes dear to the National Front.
Sarkozy and Hollande, both 57, used their first post-election speeches to lure far-right voters to their respective camps ahead of the May 6 final round. But Hollande did so more softly.
The math is brutal. Hollande won 28.6 per cent of Sunday’s vote, Sarkozy won 27.2 per cent and both need votes from Le Pen’s far right to climb over 50 per cent — but mostly Sarkozy. Hollande is expected to get many of the backers of far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon who won 11 per cent. The 9 per cent who voted for centrist candidate Francois Bayrou are also in play.
Sarkozy named the National Front, and in a bid to destigmatise those who vote for the far-right party, said he respects them.
