FRANCE:At his last rally in Paris before next Sunday's presidential run-off, right-wing presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy reached out to centrist and extreme right-wing voters, promising to "introduce a little proportional representation in the National Assembly or in the Senate".
Proportional representation has been a key demand of both Francois Bayrou's centrist UDF and Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front. Mr Sarkozy will need voters from both parties to win. Yesterday marked the first time he promised reform of the electoral system.
Since Mr Bayrou won 18.5 per cent of the vote in the first round on April 22nd, Mr Sarkozy has used strong-arm tactics to secure the allegiance of UDF representatives. At least 21 of 29 UDF deputies have now promised to vote for the right-wing candidate. In exchange, Mr Sarkozy says his UMP party will not field candidates against them in the June legislative elections.
In an interview to be published by a regional newspaper today, Hervé Morin, the leader of the UDF group in the National Assembly, says he "will vote without hesitation for Nicolas Sarkozy" because "Ségolène Royal is not up to the presidential job and is locked into an old system of alliances with the communist party and the extreme left".
Nor has Mr Sarkozy given up on winning over Mr Bayrou himself, despite the centrist leader's public flirtation with Ms Royal in a televised "dialogue" on Saturday. "I am not cross with ," Mr Sarkozy told Canal Plus television yesterday. "A presidential candidate mustn't harbour bitterness." Mr Sarkozy's said the centrist arbiter of the run-off was "unlike the Francois Bayrou I've known for 20 years. I want to believe that these insults, which are unusual in his mouth, are the fruit of bitterness and disappointment. I can understand, but I think he's understood that he mustn't continue in this direction..." He could "perfectly well govern" with Mr Bayrou, Mr Sarkozy added.
Singers Enrico Macias, Henri Salvador and Johnny Halliday, outgoing prime minister Dominique de Villepin and an assortment of television stars were among the 20,000 people who attended Mr Sarkozy's rally at the Bercy sports stadium yesterday.
Mr Sarkozy claimed yet again to represent the "silent majority... the France that pays for those who take advantage of the system." He would not be "the candidate of the media establishment, of clannishness, of partisan interests", he said, addressing one of Ms Royal's main accusations against him.
As is his wont, Mr Sarkozy lambasted the "May '68 generation" which has dominated French intellectual and political life since the student revolt. He accused the left of preferring the legacy of May 1968 to that of their historic leader Jules Ferry. The French left advocated "hand-outs" and had "turned their back on the workers of our country", he claimed.
In an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, Mr Sarkozy dismissed Saturday's televised dialogue between Ms Royal and Mr Bayou as "vague and confused". The dialogue was the result of Ms Royal's attempts to win over a majority of the 6.8 million people who voted for Mr Bayrou in the first round, and of Mr Bayrou's desire to create a modern, social democratic party at the centre of the French political spectrum.
In the good-natured, nearly two-hour exchange, there was broad agreement on the need for institutional reform and an "impartial state" that would treat all citizens equally. But economic policy continues to thwart efforts to create the socialist-centrist alliance that represents the only hope of saving Ms Royal's bid for the presidency.
Ms Royal and Mr Bayrou disagreed over the desirability of a Europe-wide minimum wage, and the 35-hour working week. He scolded her for promising so many new types of benefits and programmes. "You keep coming back to the idea that the state can do things in the place of society. That's over," he said.
An Ipsos/Dell poll showed Mr Sarkozy could win next Sunday's election by 52.5 per cent, against 47.5 per cent for Ms Royal.