Sarkozy brands Socialist rival a 'liar' at campaign rally

AFP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy used his first re-election campaign rally Thursday to launch a blistering attack on his frontrunning Socialist rival, calling him an inveterate liar.

Francois Hollande "lies from morning to night," Sarkozy told cheering supporters at the Alpine town of Annecy, the day after officially declaring his candidacy for the election in 10 weeks.

"When you tell the English press that you are pro-market (economically liberal) and when you come to explain to the French that finance is the enemy, you are lying, you are lying from morning to night!," he said.

The president was referring to an interview in The Guardian published Monday in which the Socialist favourite said he wanted to reassure the City of London that it need not worry about his plans to regulate the financial world.

Hollande said in his first campaign rally late last month that the "enemy" was "the world of finance."

Polls consistently show Hollande as the clear frontrunner and, with less than 10 weeks to go until the first round of voting on April 22, the election is shaping up to be a classic two-horse race between right and left.