FRANCE: Rival teams of electoral bill stickers start plastering Paris with posters exhorting the electorate to vote for their candidate as President Nicolas Sarkozy warns a Socialist victory would hit market confidence

Record ID: 346540

  • Title: FRANCE: Rival teams of electoral bill stickers start plastering Paris with posters exhorting the electorate to vote for their candidate as President Nicolas Sarkozy warns a Socialist victory would hit market confidence
  • Date: 14th April 2012
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (APRIL 13, 2012) (I TELEVISION - NO RE-USE AFTER 0700 GMT, APRIL 14, 2012) (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH PRESIDENT NICOLAS SARKOZY SAYING: "So am I responsible for the problems of Spain? To my knowledge, I didn't run Greece, which was run by Mr Papandreou, a Socialist. To the best of my knowledge I wasn't running Ireland or Portugal. The truth is that since far too long, states have been accumulating a debt that needs to be paid back. By making spending promises and no commitments to saving, Mr Holllande is creating the conditions for a problem of confidence."
  • Embargoed: 29th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France, France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAFAKSZRVR1C7YFWJ1KVDHZOQ0
  • Story Text: Bill stickers and fly posters were out in force in Paris on Friday (April 13) as they started to plaster the French capital with posters exhorting voters to back their candidates in next week's presidential elections, amid warnings by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that a Socialist victory could lead to market turmoil.
    In a decades-old ritual that accompanies every election in France, the bill stickers tried to plaster their candidate's image over as many of their rivals as possible. Occasional heated exchanges with city officials who tore the posters down punctuated their work.
    Sarkozy, who polls show slightly behind Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande in the first round of voting on April 22, and well behind in the second-round runoffs, warned that a victory of the Left could lead to market turmoil.
    "The truth is that since far too long, states have been accumulating a debt that needs to be paid back. By making spending promises and no commitments to saving, Mr Holllande is creating the conditions for a problem of confidence," he told I-Television, a leading French news channel.
    In a potential embarrassment for the former president, a former ally of his went on French radio to say that when he first stood for election in 2007, Sarkozy initially aimed to serve only one term and then planned to leave for the private sector to make lots of money.
    Anne Lauvergeon, who was removed earlier this year from the leadership of state nuclear group Areva was publicising a book which is occasionally critical of Sarkozy and in which she relates how he planned to join the Bouygues conglomerate that is run by a close friend to make money.
    "That's what he told me," she told France Inter radio.
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