The French presidential race is in full swing. Sarkozy versus Hollande is the motto. But there is a second pack of contenders hoping to pull off an upset and get to the second round. One is Marine Le Pen, of course, whose father did it back in 2002. There is also François Bayrou, a centrist leader who scored 18% back in 2007 and, recently joining the group, Jean-Luc Mélenchon from the Leftist Front, a coalition comprising the Communist Party.
FRENCH PAPERS, Mon. 13/02/12. According to Le Figaro, Nicolas Sarkozy will announce he’s running for a second term between now and the end of the week. The right-leaning paper says that although on paper everything is against him, he will still win the election. The Communist paper L’Humanité says Sarkozy is pandering to potential voters from the far-right.
What exactly does centrist presidential candidate François Bayrou want? President Nicolas Sarkozy, meanwhile, wants major reforms, but with less than 100 days to go before elections, is it too late? And we find out how the national debt is a problem across the generational divide.
“I’m in it to win it,” declared French centrist François Bayrou when announcing his candidacy for France’s 2012 presidential election on Wednesday. But can the head of the centrist “Modem” party do better than in 2007? FRANCE 24 takes a closer look.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right UMP party begins it annual summer meeting in the Landes region, while François Bayrou will address his MoDem centrists at their own gathering in the Grande-Motte.
The return to work of the French political establishment seems to be very particular this year. Many alliances inside the left and the right wing seem to be possible…
French MoDem Party chief and a Green Party candidate exchanged harsh words on a live televised debate, with the former accusing the latter of having defended pedophilia, in one of the few memorable moments of this year’s campaigns.
Melissa Bell interviews Pervenche Bérès, French Socialist Party MEP; François Coustal, member of the New Anticapitalist Party; Marie Virapatirin, European election candidate (Modem); and Nicolas Perruchot, MP from the “Nouveau Centre” party.
In just under three weeks nearly 400 million Europeans will be eligible to vote in elections for the European parliament. But the big question is: how many will bother to turn out?
