Elysée

I HAD to pinch myself while sitting through Nicolas Sarkozy’s press conference this afternoon. For the past six weeks or so, with one eye on the far-right Marine Le Pen, the presidential candidate has focused his campaign on such matters as immigration, protectionism for European firms, security and tax exiles. Today, however, he reinvented himself as a champion of fiscal prudence and sound public finances.

With a 32-point programme, itemised and costed, Mr Sarkozy sounded an alarmist note about the need to get French public finances under control. He said that France faced a “historic choice”, at a time when “certain countries in Europe are on the edge of a precipice”.

Continue reading "What's French for U-turn?" »

NICOLAS SARKOZY was in his element this afternoon, campaigning from a platform at a solar-power plant in eastern France, surrounded by workers in overalls and hard hats. This is his campaign backdrop of choice. It speaks of muscular industriousness, and is a nod to the working-class vote that helped propel him into the presidency in 2007 and which he so badly needs this time.

He duly praised French industrial prowess and adaptability: the vast site, at Toul-Rosières, is a former air base now converted into a solar-energy farm, and capable of generating enough electricity to supply 60,000 households for a year.

Continue reading "The comeback kid" »

WHAT on earth has happened to François Bayrou? Not so long ago, the centrist candidate was being hailed as France’s third man. Le Point magazine splashed him on the cover and called him "the prophet". At the start of the year, he was the only candidate who could boast a consistent poll surge. Between November 2011 and the end of January, his first-round score jumped from 7% to 12%. With Nicolas Sarkozy lurching to the right, and François Hollande to the left, the middle looked like Mr Bayrou's for the taking.

Latest polls, however, look desperate for him.

Continue reading "The disappearing third man" »

A GLORIOUS afternoon here in Nice, on the Côte d'Azur, where I've been following François Hollande on the campaign trail. He has just held an open-air rally, flanked by palm trees on the Promenade des Anglais, under an unseasonably scorching sun. Supporters folded campaign posters into paper hats to shade themselves.

Mr Hollande's speech was a now-familiar mix of promises to restore pride and prosperity, dignity and decency. He knows how to raise a laugh, mocking Nicolas Sarkozy's attempt to portray himself as a candidate of change. What has he being doing for the past five years? thundered Mr Hollande to much applause.

Continue reading "On the trail with superstar Hollande" »

IT IS good to learn that Nicolas Sarkozy is about to bring out a manifesto of sorts. This may come as a surprise, but so far the sitting president has been campaigning on the back of only speeches and periodic announcements. Unlike François Hollande, who has at least published a 60-point programme, Mr Sarkozy has not yet come up with a costed project.

This makes it tricky to compare the extravagance of the different candidates, most of whom are also piling up extra spending pledges by the week. Happily, there are a few think-tanks here who have tried to do this for them. Less happily, none of them does it in an entirely satisfactory way.

Continue reading "Short of a cent or two" »

IN THE aftermath of the Toulouse killings, President Nicolas Sarkozy has been careful to keep the focus on counter-terrorism and security, not immigration. Not so Marine Le Pen, who went in for crude electioneering at a weekend rally, thundering: "How many Mohamed Merahs in the boats, the aeroplanes, that arrive each day in France?" I wonder if she hasn’t misread the national mood.

Until now, Ms Le Pen has run quite a clever campaign. The mistake of some observers has been to see the far-right National Front leader as merely a female, telegenic version of her father: crudely anti-immigrant and anti-Islam.

Continue reading "Of home-grown terror and Islam" »

A WORD is due on Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the fiery hard-left presidential candidate. Last night a new poll put him in third place, with a stunning five-point jump from the previous month. If this poll is to be believed, he has now overtaken both François Bayrou and Marine Le Pen to become the new third man in the election.

Styling himself as the “candidate of the people”, and backed by the French Communist Party, Mr Mélenchon’s campaign has caused quite a stir. While Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande have gone for showy, well-choreographed rallies, Mr Mélenchon has opted for the home-made touch.

Continue reading "Aux armes, citoyens" »