FRANCE: With a day to go before France chooses its new president, polls give Socialist candidate Francois Hollande the lead, but some suggest incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy has a shot at retaining the presidency

Record ID: 860779

  • Title: FRANCE: With a day to go before France chooses its new president, polls give Socialist candidate Francois Hollande the lead, but some suggest incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy has a shot at retaining the presidency
  • Date: 6th May 2012
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF NEWSPAPER HEADLINES
  • Embargoed: 21st May 2012 13:00
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  • Location: France
  • City:
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA58UTYPDBBYVIRJDS4RPVIO8H
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  • Story Text: A day ahead of the final round of the French presidential elections, on Saturday (May 5) some French are expecting a tight finish.
    Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy made an impassioned final appeal to voters on Friday, saying that a Socialist victory could send France spiralling the way of Greece, as polls showed him narrowing his challenger's lead two days before the vote.
    Final opinion polls put Francois Hollande's advantage at as little as four percentage points. And even as it seems that the incumbent president faces an uphill battle to win, some Parisians are not ruling out a Sarkozy victory on Sunday.
    "Yes, unfortunately he (Sarkozy) has chances of winning. Because there are many who are still undecided. Many don't know yet, so it could be him," Amandine said.
    "I think anything is possible. Sarkozy can win, even if it seems like he has less chances than Hollande," Laura said.
    In Tulle, Hollande's political hometown, people expressed the hope that their man from the Correze region would win the race.
    "I am happy that this man has now arrived at the top, and it makes me happy if he could be president, I would be really content," said Jean Jean Jacques, as he made his way to a fresh food market were Hollande is a regular customer.
    If the Socialist frontrunner indeed gets elected, it would be the second time this rural region, known in France as "the sticks", would produce a president. Former President Jacques Chirac also came from this area, a five hour drive south of Paris. Residents said another president from Tulle, would mean more attention to their local problems.
    "Chirac did a lot for the Correze and I hope Hollande will also do a lot for the rural regions in general. Here we are far away from Paris and our problems are not the same," sales woman Nicole Vedrenne said.
    It was in Tulle that Hollande first made his political mark shortly after France's first Socialist president, François Mitterrand, was elected in 1981. And it was in Tulle that his presidential journey began when, during a visit in 2011 he announced his intention to stand in the Socialist party primaries.
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