M A I N   N E W S

Sarkozy wins French presidential election

Paris, May 6
Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy won France’s presidential election today, beating his Socialist rival Segolene Royal by a comfortable margin and extending the Right’s 12-year grip on power.

'I want to call our European partners, with whom our destiny is deeply linked, to tell them that I have been a European all my life. Tonight, France is back in Europe.

Within minutes of the poll closing, Royal conceded defeat in a speech to party faithful in the heart of Paris. “I hope that the next President of the republic fulfils his role in the service of all French people,” she said.

Forecasts by four pollsters showed Sarkozy, 52, a hardline former interior minister, won around 53 per cent of the vote in the second-round ballot and will succeed fellow conservative Jacques Chirac, who was President for 12 years. Turnout was predicted at about 85 per cent.

Sarkozy’s face flashed up on television screens after polling stations closed at 8 pm, signalling his victory and setting off jubilant scenes among supporters gathered in central Paris.

Across the city at Socialist headquarters, there was gloom and sorrow after the party crashed to its third consecutive presidential election defeat. It now faces the prospect of tough internal reform to make itself more appealing to voters.

Although opinion polls regularly suggested voters preferred Royal, who was seeking to become France’s first woman head of state, they saw the uncompromising Sarkozy as a more competent leader with a more convincing economic programme.

Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, presented himself as the “candidate of work”, promising to loosen the 35-hour work week by offering tax breaks on overtime and to trim fat from the public service, cut taxes and wage war on unemployment.

He is expected to take office on May 16 or 17, and will be the first French president to be born after World War II.

He will then name a new government and immediately launch into campaigning for June’s parliamentary election, where he will seek a clear majority to implement his reform plans.

The President is elected for five years, is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, nominates the Prime Minister, has the right to dissolve the National Assembly and is responsible for foreign and defence policies.

Royal started the year as favourite, but a string of gaffes over foreign policy raised doubts over her competency. Deep ideological divisions in her own camp meant she could never enjoy unified support from the Socialists.

She served up a gutsy performance in a TV debate with Sarkozy last week, but he appeared more precise and controlled, further strengthening his status as front-runner. Sarkozy’s own personality has been questioned. Critics say he is impulsive, authoritarian and likely to exacerbate tensions in the poor, multi-racial suburbs that ring many French cities.

He has promised a clean break with the policies of Chirac, once his political mentor. — Reuters