Sarkozy enters election race but second term a tough sell

By Clare Byrne Feb 15, 2012, 15:20 GMT

Paris - It was never a question of if but when French President Nicolas Sarkozy would announce he is seeking re-election.

After staving off the moment for weeks Sarkozy will confirm he wants to serve another five years in a television interview on Wednesday evening.

He had considered putting off the announcement until March, a month before the first round of the two-stage April-May polls.

Sarkozy wanted to wear the presidential mantle for as long as possible in order to be seen as remaining above the fray, busy with running the country while his Socialist rival Francois Hollande ran about canvassing for votes.

By keeping everyone waiting, the incumbent also hoped to rekindle a little longing among the voters who propelled him to power five years ago.

It didn't work.

Opinion polls show Sarkozy stuck at the lowest point ever for an incumbent at this point in the presidential race - with between 24.5 and 26 per cent of voter intentions, compared with between 29.5 and 31 per cent for Hollande, the frontrunner.

With panic now palpable in the halls of government Sarkozy's advisors have convinced him to pick up the pace.

His team has promised a 'lightning' campaign, that will blitz the electorate with 'new ideas' every day between now and the first round of the election on April 22.

After Wednesday evening's interview with TF1, it's off to the mountain town of Annecy Thursday, where he will visit a cheesemaker and address a rally.

Sarkozy, who has been accused of being cosy with the rich, will present himself as the 'candidate of the people,' sources within his team told Le Figaro newspaper.

Another theme of his campaign will be 'courage' - the courage to level with the French about the country's finances and the need for unpopular reforms.

'Knowing how to say no, knowing how to resist, to all those who think that governing is not choosing or that governing is saying yes,' Sarkozy explained Monday, hinting that Hollande, a former Socialist leader known for his consensual style, would be a Yes man.

Sarkozy said his bitter medicine would 'treat the French addiction to spending.'

It's a tough sell from a president, who oversaw a meteoric rise in public debt - which led to the country's AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's being cut in January - before converting to German-style fiscal discipline last year.

His inconsistency is one of the main criticisms levelled at Sarkozy.

He promised to get the French 'working more to earn more'. Instead unemployment has climbed to a twelve-year high of nearly 10 per cent.

He promised to create 'a republic beyond reproach' but his party has been engulfed in a series of scandals.

In the past few weeks he has attempted to buff his credentials as a reformer by trying to push through hasty labour reforms aimed at making French industry more competitive.

When that failed to make an impact on his poll ratings, he fell back on a more populist tune.

In an interview with Le Figaro magazine at the weekend, Sarkozy proposed holding referendums on unemployment benefits and immigration.

A few days before that, Interior Minister Claude Gueant declared that 'all civilizations are not equal' - remarks Sarkozy said he approved.

His opponents accuse him of chasing after far-right National Front (FN) voters.

In 2007, Sarkozy took votes from the FN by vowing to tackle 'scum' youth in the high-rise ghettos where many people of north African origin live.

This time, the nationalist FN threatens to take votes from Sarkozy among low-paid workers and the unemployed.

The risk for Sarkozy, in trying to shore up his right flank, is that he could loses centrist voters, Frederic Dabi of Ifop polling institute told Le Journal du Dimanche.

For Christine Ockrent, a French journalist writing in Britain's The Guardian newspaper this week, Sarkozy's endless chopping and changing have created 'intense Sarkozy fatigue.'

'Whatever his formidable talent as a campaigner, it will be hard to dispel,' she predicted.