Paris:
More than half a dozen opinion polls in France have been predicting that French President Nicolas Sarkozy may not get elected for a second term. Socialist party candidate Francois Hollande has taken a steady lead as the front runner and is likely to win both rounds of votes in the upcoming French presidential elections.
France will be picking their candidates from amongst ten hopefuls. If none of them get more than half the votes, there will be a second round of voting.
Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande are the two leading candidates. They held massive rallies in Paris on Sunday with exactly one week left for the first round of voting. Both candidates saw 100,000 supporters each turning up, braving freezing winds for this show of strength.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who is called Mr. Bling Bling by those who brand him 'pro rich', could well be ousted this time by "Mr. Normal", the French Socialist Party candidate, Francois Hollande, who used to ride a scooter to work until recently.
Mr. Hollande wants to withdraw French troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year. He wants to tax the rich more and "curb" the financial markets. Mr. Hollande says austerity is not the only solution to France's economic woes and the focus should be on generating growth. The word "justice" figures often in Francois Hollande's speeches.
President Sarkozy, spoke at a rally at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. His podium faced the Champs Elysées and was flanked by the French Parliament and the Seine on one side and the legendary Hotel Crillon and the Madeleine church on the other.
Sarkozy rubbished his challenger's propositions and warned that they would have dangerous consequences. He claims Hollande's strategy will bring "ruin" to the middle class and will not benefit the poor. The choices made by Hollande will "lead to the destruction of investor confidence" and leave France "at the mercy of speculation" he said. He also believes this path could only lead to a situation where hurtful austerity measures will have to be applied in the end. This, says Sarkozy, would plunge France into a depression and push the "most vulnerable" into misery.
Speaking minutes after Nicolas Sarkozy, at the Chateau de Vincennes in the east of Paris, Francois Hollande lashed out at the President and accused him of fear mongering. "Fear of foreigners, fear of state assistance, fear of disorder, fear of taxes, fear of the markets, fear of the left. The right has always done this when it has been threatened."
It's not so much President Sarkzoy's policies, but his style and populist rhetoric, which many seem to be rejecting. His
burqa ban, his manifesto that calls for reducing immigration and his crackdown on radical Islam may after all, not pay off well. Those who back Francois Hollande say he's more down to earth and less aggressive.
Francois Hollande, has clearly emerged as the most popular candidate. Of all the ten candidates in the presidential race, at least seven are from a left leaning party. Francois Hollande's victory could mark the return of the socialist in power after 17 years of conservative governments.
The Eurozone crisis is still looming large. A change of guard in Europe's second largest economy could create upheaval, at least in the short term. Mr. Hollande doesn't believe in austerity measures, a formula so far applied to Greece, Italy and Spain that have been hit hard.
But Nicolas Sarkozy says he doesn't believe in opinion polls and he still hasn't lost the elections. The first round of voting takes place on April 22 and the second on May 6.