France's ruling centre-right crowns Nicolas Sarkozy as its presidential candidate on Sunday, but to win in May the interior minister must use his acceptance speech to start wooing voters put off by his strident image.
As the only candidate, Sarkozy is certain to win an internal vote of his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), whose lavish congress will seek to gloss over weeks of in-fighting that has dismayed UMP voters and hurt his hopes of election in May.
Weeks of veiled and open attacks by President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin have fuelled suspicions they would be happy to see their rival lose.
Polls suggest Sarkozy will reach a May 6 run-off ballot but a string of recent surveys suggest the Socialist Segolene Royal could beat him and become France's first woman head of state.
Ahead of the congress Sarkozy won a major boost, however, when Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie pledged to drop her plans to run and campaign alongside her erstwhile rival.
That could help him attract traditional conservatives as well as centrists cool on his economic reforms, pro-U.S. stance and harsh rhetoric on law-and-order and immigration.
An Ifop poll for Sunday's Journal du Dimanche (JDD) weekly showed that while large majorities thought he had the innovative policies and stature to be president, 51 percent said Sarkozy worried them