Sarkozy says will bow out if French don't pick him
French President Nicolas
Sarkozy said on Thursday he would fight with everything he has to win a second
term but will bow out of politics if he loses an April-May election.Riot police
using teargas were sent in to clear a crowd of 200 mostly young protestors in a
town ahead of a campaign rally he was due to hold in the central French town of
Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert just a few weeks from election day.Sarkozy, who is
badly lagging Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in opinion polls six weeks
before the first round of voting, said Hollande's lack of ministerial or
international experience was a problem at a time of economic turmoil.I worry
when I look at the Socialist candidate's programme ... and I worry about this
dearth of experience in such a troubled period. But if the French people do not
put their faith in me, do you really think I would carry on in politics? The
answer is no," Sarkozy told .Hollande widened his lead slightly this week,
advancing 2 points to 30 percent support for the April 22 first round, while
Sarkozy gained only 1 point to 28 percent.The survey, by pollster CSA, saw
Hollande beating Sarkozy by 56 percent to 44 percent in a May 6 runoff."I
will fight with all my strength to win your confidence, to protect and lead you
and build a strong France, but if that is not your choice I will bow out,
that's the way it is, and I will have had a great life in politics," he
said.His wife, former model-turned singer Carla Bruni, said Sarkozy had devoted
himself entirely to his job and would continue to do so if he won a second
term, but if he lost he would have little choice but to change
direction."What do you expect him to do after being president of the
Republic? Do you want him to go back to being a minister or a mayor?" she
told French talkshow "C a Vous", adding that she worried about his
health and his long working hours.Sarkozy said on a three-hour televised debate
on Tuesday that he was not discouraged by his weak poll scores and that one of
his characteristics is that he never gives up.But French media are reporting
that his campaign team is starting to worry that Sarkozy's efforts to overcome
a widespread dislike of his personal style and anger over three years of
economic gloom are not working.A week after protestors pelted his escort with
eggs in the southwest of France, Sarkozy's impending arrival in
Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert triggered a protest by some 200 youths waving banners
with slogans such as "no to the president" or "Sarkozy, you're
the security problem".A reporter saw riot police move in to clear the
crowd and prevent them nearing the rally location.Campaign spokeswoman Nathalie
Kosciusko-Morizet - who was lambasted as out of touch after she was unable to
tell a radio presenter the price of a Paris metro ticket - lamented this week
that the race had descended into distracting polemic.Sarkozy launched his
campaign in mid-February, several weeks after Hollande, and has opted for a
strategy of unveiling his ideas - such as a new minimum tax on company profits,
making the unemployed sign up to training to get their benefits and holding
policy referendums - week by week. After a strong start that saw him trim the
gap with Hollande by a few points, he suffered setbacks in his second week,
including being jostled by left-wing militants while out on the campaign trail,
and has now lost his initial bounce. Meanwhile Hollande has consolidated his
lead position after announcing a surprise 75 percent tax rate on annual income
above 1 million euros, a move nearly two in three voters support. On Thursday's
radio show, Sarkozy proposed a new household fund for women abandoned by
fathers of their children, a new renovation programme for city suburbs and said
he would cut the number of lawmakers by 10 to 15 percent to trim public
spending.Socialist politician Bernard Cazeneuve said the raft of measures
smacked of a last-minute panic, and mocked Sarkozy for diverting attention with
talk of life after the presidency.
"We don't care what he
does if he loses, what we want to know is what he'll do if he's elected,"
he told.Sarkozy, whose main focus is on structural reform and tighter
immigration rules, is expected to give his first real campaign overview at a
big campaign rally on Sunday in the Paris suburb of Villepinte.
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