France election: Nicolas Sarkozy seeks to put a disastrous electoral week behind him

In any case, the latest polls suggest Mr Sarkozy has lost vital ground to Mr
Hollande after a modest rise following his official campaign launch. He has
lost three points in two weeks, according to a LH2-Yahoo poll, and is now
forecast to win just 23 per cent of votes in round one, with Mr Hollande on
30.5 per cent.

The gap is 58-42 per cent in the run-off. Worse, an ever-increasing chunk of
voters now say they won’t change their minds.

Mr Hollande, meanwhile, managed to dictate the agenda with his surprise
proposal to slap a 75 per cent tax on anyone earning over a million euros a
year.

“Will the last rich man to leave the country please turn out the light?”
was in essence the Right’s response. They even produced a film
of Mr Hollande last year admitting such a measure would lead to “offshoring”
of wealth
and would bring in no money.

The average punter in the UK might agree but not in France, where fury at the “indecent
wealth” of a privileged few led 61 per cent of the French to approve
the idea in one poll.

Gripes from multi-millionaire French footballers that their mega-salaries
would be unfairly hit only bolstered that support.

Mr Sarkozy’s poll drop has reignited concerns in his camp that Marine Le Pen
might knock him out in round one. Hovering around the 18 per cent mark, Ms
Le Pen has re-centred her campaign away from economics and statism to the
FN’s fundamentals of immigration and insecurity – what her father calls the
party’s “rocket boosters”.

In a rally in Marseilles on Sunday, she lit the fuse saying “Where’s the
Karcher?”, a reference to Mr Sarkozy’s promise to hose down
crime-ridden housing estates with Karcher industrial cleaner in 2007. “Where
is the promised fight against violence and why so much laxism?” she
asked.

Mr Sarkozy’s response has been to veer Right, calling immigration a “problem”
in Bordeaux on Saturday and proposing that victims of crimes be allowed to
appeal the release of their attackers. His interior minister, Claude Guéant,
sparked anger on the Left after by claiming the Socialists’ proposal of
giving foreigners the right to vote in local elections would lead to halal
meat on the school canteen menu.

But the tactic does not appear to be working.

“He’s got no wind in his sails,” one adviser told Le Monde on
Monday. “He needs something to get the boat moving and the fact that
the euro crisis is receding is not bringing favourable winds.”

Revelations this weekend that Sarkozy
and Hollande are distant cousins
– are unlikely to boost morale.

All eyes are now on a huge rally in Villepinte near Paris on Sunday before up
to 60,000 supporters – which his camp hopes will set him back on course.

Views: 0

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes