I Will Protect You, Sarkozy Tells France As His Flame Burns Again On Last Day Of Campaigning

I will protect you, Sarkozy tells France as his flame burns again on last day of campaigning

· Frontrunner talks tough on immigration and crime
· Campaigning style will dominate runoff

On a stage facing a sea of tricolour flags stood a small figure in a pinstriped suit hailed as the greatest orator in France. Slicing the air with both hands and jabbing his finger, he waved his arms like an orchestra conductor, whipping the crowd into a frenzy as he promised a France that would no longer hate itself, that would no longer let unchecked immigrants invade its borders and burn its suburbs.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the rightwing frontrunner in France's first-round presidential vote, has spent weeks stressing that he has mellowed. But at his final campaign rally in front of 20,000 people in Marseille, the former interior minister who once suggested wayward suburban youths were scum, sent a clear message: "I'm still myself."

Reclaiming the passion he had recently toned down, he dripped with sweat as he promised to be France's "protector" and restore faith in a country crippled by unemployment, economic stagnation and self-doubt.

"I hate this fashion for repentance that says France hates itself and its history," he roared. He said colonisation might have been an "unfair system" but would not apologise for it and talked of the debt owed to those "decent and hardworking French families" forced out of Africa. Boasting no fear of the "politically correct" lobby, he proudly repeated his codewords for a new moral and patriotic France. "Authority! Authority! Authority!" he shouted to wild cheers. He joked about critics' fears of a "police state", saying he would not back down on firm policing. The crowd went wild.

French rivals end campaign push

Mr Sarkozy has been trying to shed his tough-guy image

The candidates in France's presidential election have wound up their campaigns ahead of Sunday's first round vote.
After official campaigning closed at midnight (2200 GMT), a ban on opinion polls and campaigning came into force.

The leading candidates are centre-right Nicolas Sarkozy, Socialist Segolene Royal, centrist Francois Bayrou, and far-right leader Jean-Marie le Pen.

More than one-third of voters are said to be still undecided. The final round of voting will take place on 6 May.

The BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris says that in their final rallies the candidates tried to outflank each other in their appeals to patriotism and promises to tackle France's economic problems.

But Sarko and Sego, as the two main candidates have become known, have proved deeply divisive figures, giving the centrist, Francois Bayrou, a broad appeal that has made the outcome impossible to predict, our correspondent says.

A 'fairer' France

Mr Sarkozy was in the southern Camargue region on Friday trying to win round farmers.

Ms Royal was continuing her informal style with a Socialist picnic near the city of Poitiers, while the centrist Francois Bayrou focused on the crucial working-class vote in the north.

On Thursday evening, Mr Sarkozy appeared before 12,000 cheering supporters in Marseille, trying to shed the tough image he gained as interior minister.

"To unite the French people, to be able to speak on their behalf, to be able to govern, you must be able to love," he said.

He was joined on stage by footballer Basile Boli and a range of former prime ministers and ministers.

Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero appeared with Ms Royal in the south-western city of Toulouse.

Ms Royal promised to build a "fairer and stronger" France

To the sound of thumping rock music and the cheers of about 15,000 supporters, Ms Royal promised a "fairer and stronger" France - "a France that does not discriminate against a job-seeker because he does not have the right skin colour, the right name, the right address".

She got a deafening cheer when she said France would never go down on its knees for US President George Bush.

Not far away, in the town of Pau, Mr Bayrou, leader of the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF), said rising tensions in France concerned him.

Far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the party's Riviera stronghold of Nice said a "great national wave will sweep away the oligarchy".

New voters

Mr Le Pen came a surprise second in the 2002 election, beating the Socialist candidate to reach the run-off second round, where he was defeated by Jacques Chirac.

This time, there are more than one million newly registered voters, the biggest increase in 25 years. Many of them are young people or French citizens living abroad, whose voting intentions are hard to gauge.

Another novelty is the use of electronic voting machines in some districts, criticised by the Socialists and some other opposition parties as dangerously unreliable. They will be used by 1.5 million voters.

Ms Royal hopes to become France's first woman president, but left-wing voters are among the most volatile, surveys suggest. She has several rivals on the left who could undermine her support.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.