Who are Nicolas Sarkozy’s competition in the French election?

The outsiders

On the far right, Marine Le Pen, 43, is making her election debut after
having inherited the leadership of the National Front from her father,
Jean-Marie Le Pen.

She says she does not yet have the 500 signatures of mayors and regional
councillors she needs to sponsor her candidacy.

If she does not find them by March 16 her absence would be felt in a campaign
that has seen her scoring from 16 to 20 percent in opinion polls.

She wants France to leave the eurozone and fashions herself as the candidate
of the people, at odds with the “global oligarchy” of the other
parties. She intends to put an end to immigration and the “Islamification
of France”.

Centrist Francois Bayrou, 60, who gained a surprise 18.5 percent of the
presidential vote in 2007, is convinced he will make it to the second round
of the election.

The first to have broached the risks associated with France’s exploding debt,
he now defends the “Made in France” stance against job outsourcing
and de-industrialisation.

After a surge in opinion polls at the start of January, he has since peaked
with between 12 and 14 percent of likely votes.

The others

Jean-Luc Melenchon, 60, represents both the Communist Party and his
camp, the Left Party. A former Socialist Party member, he wants the left to
turn its back on market capitalism. He is polling at around eight percent.

The French-Norwegian former anti-corruption judge and Green, Eva Joly,
68, is campaigning on the theme of injecting morality into politics, but has
failed to convince and polls predict she will win no more than two to four
percent.

Former prime minister Dominique de Villepin, 58, has never before been
a candidate in any election. He is a bitter enemy of Sarkozy, and may siphon
off some right-wing support, but is not expected to have a big impact on the
race.

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