Sarkozy attempts to ditch elitist image as re-election bid begins

French President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted yesterday that he will not be the candidate of a small elite against the people, in the first major rally of his re-election bid.

“I want to be the candidate of the people of France,” he told a rally of 10,000 supporters at the Mediterranean port city of Marseille.

“I won’t be the candidate of a small elite against the people,” he added.

With nine weeks to go until the first round of France’s presidential election in April, Sarkozy, 57, was greeted with cheers on his arrival at the rally.

By his side was Carla Bruni, a first lady formerly associated with Parisian glamour and jet-set resorts, trying to re-invent herself as an ordinary mum and doting spouse.

Sarkozy has begun to close the gap between him and opposition Socialist Francois Hollande — and thus is coming closer to a second term in the Elysee — as the Apr 22 polling day approaches.

But the right-winger still faces the prospect of a humiliating defeat.

Yesterday’s latest poll by LH2-Yahoo! was in line with all recent surveys, forecasting that Hollande would sweep the May 6 run-off with 55% to Sarkozy’s 45%.

The visual signals of the event were to take on a particular importance, as this was the first event attended by his spouse.

“I’ll accompany my husband when he needs me... in symbolic moments, in rallies,” she said, turning her back on her image as a champagne leftist and social libertarian and pledging allegiance to Sarkozy’s conservatism.

Image management experts are sceptical that the makeover will work, or that Sarkozy himself will regain the lost affection of the French electorate, which seems to have absorbed the idea of him as a president for the rich.

“It’s not at two months from election that you try to change the image of a president,” said Bruno Jeanbart, of pollster OpinionWay. “Especially as Nicolas Sarkozy has a very settled image.”