French presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal went back to the campaign trail on Monday as they battled for votes from the undecided center ground that will be key to their May 6 runoff.
Sunday’s first round ballot set up a classic race between left and right in France after Sarkozy, the conservative former interior minister, scored a resounding win with 31.2 percent against 25.9 percent for the Socialist candidate Royal.
Opinion polls give Sarkozy a firm edge heading into the decisive second round, with between 52-54 percent support against 46-48 percent for Royal.
But the result had both candidates eyeing supporters of centrist Francois Bayrou, who captured 18.6 percent of the vote after a dynamic campaign based on a pledge to sweep aside the ruling elite and overcome traditional political divides.
“Essentially the results will be dictated by the behavior of his voters. They are the ones who will make a difference,” Roland Cayrol, head of pollsters CSA told Le Parisien newspaper.
Bayrou has not given any endorsement and with polls suggesting centrist support could go either way, spokesmen for the two leading camps immediately reached out to his voter base.
“The door is never closed,” Brice Hortefeux, one of Sarkozy’s closest campaign aides told France Inter radio. “We appeal to the people who voted for Francois Bayrou rather than to the candidate himself,” he said.
Swing to center
A televised debate between Sarkozy and Royal on May 2 is likely to be key to the rest of a campaign that has been fought to a large extent over the personalities of the two candidates.
Both resumed campaigning on Monday, with Sarkozy meeting a woman’s association in Paris before traveling to the eastern city of Dijon for an early evening rally, while Royal goes to Valence in southern France for an open air meeting.
Whoever wins will have to address the deep discontent of a country suffering from one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe and with memories of riots in its deprived multi-ethnic suburbs less than two years ago still raw.
Sarkozy’s victory on Sunday owed much to his success in siphoning off support from far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen with a campaign based on fighting crime and illegal immigration, and rewarding hard work.
Le Pen himself came fourth on Sunday with 10.44 of the vote -- his worst showing at a presidential election since 1974.
However, Sarkozy made clear that he would swing to the center before May 6 in a bid to soften a combative image that delights his supporters but scares many other voters.
On Sunday, he promised a “new dream” around which he would ”rally the French people” and promised to help those struggling on low incomes and facing insecurity.
He met outgoing center-right President Jacques Chirac on Monday and received a message of support for the second round, officials at the Elysee Palace said.
Royal's regal image
For her part, Royal, whose own campaign was a mixture of left-wing economic policy and conservative social values, is likely to continue painting Sarkozy as a dangerous authoritarian in a bid to make the election a referendum against him.
“Does France want that right in power?” asked the left-wing daily Liberation. “The question is clear.”
Royal, aiming to become France’s first woman president, has faced questions over competence even within her own camp after a campaign in which the media seized on a series of gaffes.
But her slightly regal personal image and proposals for flying the flag and sending young offenders to military-style boot camps mark a break with the traditional style of the Socialist party and could aid an appeal to the center.
A classic left-wing campaign would in any case appear to hold little chance of success after the combined vote for the Socialist and far-left candidates on Sunday came to only around 35 percent, estimated to be the lowest since 1969.