AP News, April 24th, 2007
The battle between conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal heated up Tuesday with both candidates in France's presidential runoff trying to woo voters in the political center who hold the ticket to victory.
Centrist candidate Francois Bayrou is no longer in the running, but his strong third-place showing in Sunday's first round of balloting could make him a kingmaker if he throws his support behind the law-and-order former interior minister or to the leftist with a chance of being France's first woman president.
Polls show Sarkozy is in the lead, but Royal still has a fighting chance in the May 6 runoff. Both are dynamic figures in their fifties who have rekindled interest in politics after 12 years under Jacques Chirac that left voters with an stagnant economy and a dim view of France's place in the world.
Francois Fillon, a Sarkozy adviser, reached out to middle-ground voters Tuesday by telling Le Figaro newspaper that Sarkozy supporters would form a government with figures from beyond their conservative political party UMP.
Royal, who previously dismissed calls for an alliance with Bayrou, appealed to him Monday, saying she was available for a public dialogue.
"It is my responsibility to make this overture," she told supporters in the southern city of Valence. "I'm awaiting a response."
Sarkozy spokesman Xavier Bertrand on Tuesday accused Royal of bargaining with Bayrou _ and "bargaining also means renouncing your ideas, your convictions," he told LCI television.
Sarkozy, who courted the far right during his campaign and is criticized by many for abrasive language, has sought to soften his image as he appealed to voters in the middle, casting himself as "the candidate of openness."
"Openness of spirit is being able to take into consideration the positions of others, the ability to think that others might be right," he said Monday night at a rally in an eastern city, Dijon.
Bayrou, whose centrist Union for French Democracy has traditionally voted with the right in parliament but who as a candidate attracted leftist sympathizers, kept quiet about endorsing either runoff candidate. He was not expected to speak out before Wednesday.
Sarkozy heads into the runoff with a strong edge. Two polls after Sunday's vote put Sarkozy in the lead. A CSA poll of 1,005 people had him at 53.5 percent and Royal at 46.5 percent. An IFOP poll gave him 54 percent and her 46 percent. Neither provided a margin of error, but it is generally plus or minus three percentage points in polls of that size.
