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Sarkozy, Hollande square off in fierce TV debate
French voters who watched the only televised debate before this weekend’s Presidential election appeared to emerge with two impressions: Nicolas Sarkozy, who trails in the polls, did not pull off the clear victory he needed, and Francois Hollande was surprisingly resilient in the bitter back and forths.
Pollsters, meanwhile, were compiling figures about how the debate could influence Sunday’s voting. For months, their studies across the board have suggested that Hollande, the Socialist challenger, is likely to quash conservative President Sarkozy’s hopes for re-election.
The ballot outcome will set a course for the next five years of this nuclear-armed country with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and could reshape the debate in the 17-nation euro zone - which Sarkozy’s France has helped guide, along with Angela Merkel’s Germany — on how best to restore troubled state finances and sluggish growth across the continent.
The top two French networks that co-hosted on Wednesday night’s debate estimated at least 19.5 million people, or about a third of France’s population, tuned in.
French voters who watched the only televised debate before this weekend’s Presidential election appeared to emerge with two impressions: Nicolas Sarkozy, who trails in the polls, did not pull off the clear victory he needed, and Francois Hollande was surprisingly resilient in the bitter back and forths.
Pollsters, meanwhile, were compiling figures about how the debate could influence Sunday’s voting. For months, their studies across the board have suggested that Hollande, the Socialist challenger, is likely to quash conservative President Sarkozy’s hopes for re-election.
The ballot outcome will set a course for the next five years of this nuclear-armed country with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and could reshape the debate in the 17-nation euro zone - which Sarkozy’s France has helped guide, along with Angela Merkel’s Germany — on how best to restore troubled state finances and sluggish growth across the continent.
The top two French networks that co-hosted on Wednesday night’s debate estimated at least 19.5 million people, or about a third of France’s population, tuned in.
