Royal and Sarkozy set for French Presidency battle

Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal advanced to a run-off for the French presidency today offering voters a stark choice of left or right for a nation eager for new direction.

Preliminary results from the Interior Ministry, based on a count of 18.5 million votes, or nearly 50%, had Sarkozy leading with 30%, followed by Royal with 24%.

Four polling agencies also put both in the May 6 run-off, eliminating the 10 other first-round candidates. Centrist Francois Bayrou was projected in third place, while far-right leader Jean-Marie

Le Pen was fourth with around 11%, which, if confirmed, would be his worst showing in all but one of his five election campaigns.

If the preliminary results bear out, France will get its first president born after the Second World War after the May 6 final round, since both Royal and Sarkozy are in their fifties.

A win by Royal would make her France’s first woman president, nearly three decades after Britain elected Margaret Thatcher in 1979.

Both Sarkozy, a Hungarian immigrant’s son, and Royal, a military officer’s daughter who beat Socialist heavyweights to win her party’s nomination, have travelled long, arduous roads to get to this point, one step away from taking over one of Europe’s biggest economic, military and diplomatic powers.

But France also is a nation deeply troubled, still haunted by riots by young blacks and Arabs in poor neighbourhoods in 2005. Decades of stubbornly high unemployment, increasing competition from more dynamic economies like China’s, and a sense that France is losing influence in the world made this a passionate campaign.

Both Royal and Sarkozy have promised to get France back on its feet - but offer different recipes for doing that.

Sarkozy, who last week cited Martin Luther King, told a cheering crowd of supporters tonight that he wants to unite the nation around 'a French dream'.

By choosing him and Royal, voters "clearly marked their wish to go to the very end of the debate between two ideas of the nation, two programmes for society, two value systems, two concepts of politics," said Sarkozy, a former interior minister.

Outside Socialist Party headquarters in Paris, supporters erupted with joy and chants of "We’re going to win!" when the projections showed that Royal had qualified.

"They said ’Sarko’ was unbeatable. With a result like that, he’s totally beatable," said Claude Dorey, a teacher.

The turnout rate was heading over 80%, nearing the record of 84.8% set for a first round in 1965.

The intense interest testified to the high stakes for France and the personalities, inspiring for some, divisive for others - involved in an election that was wrapped in surprises and suspense.

Up to the last minute, France was kept guessing whether Bayrou, a farmer’s son and lawmaker who soared in opinion polls by promising a middle course between left and right, would best Royal or Sarkozy. But pollsters’ projections and preliminary results placed him third with about 18% of the vote.

Voters seized on the election as an opportunity to steer their nuclear-armed but anxious nation on a new course, after 12 years under Jacques Chirac.

The 74-year-old incumbent did not seek re-election, stepping aside for a new generation of candidates with iPods, a taste for rock and rap music and no memory of a Europe at war.

Many voters also were determined to avoid a repeat of the shame that they felt in 2002, when a record low turnout helped Le Pen, an extreme-right nationalist with repeat convictions for anti-

Semitic and racist comments, slip through into the run-off. Even voters on the left rallied around the conservative Chirac to keep Le Pen from power in that vote, and he was trounced.