The London Evening Post EU

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist rival Francois Hollande are set to clash in their only television debate on Wednesday seen as the conservative incumbent’s last chance to turn the odds of re-election in his favour. Trailing Hollande in opinion polls for Sunday’s decisive runoff despite an aggressive campaign and a lurch to the right to appeal to far-right votes, Sarkozy billed the prime-time debate as the “moment of truth” in the race. The duel is to be beamed live for two-and-a-half hours from 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) on channels that reach roughly half France‘s 44.5 million voters. A senior Sarkozy ally said the president planned to storm in as … Continue reading →

By Robert Asketill The French presidential election took an ugly turn this weekend with evocations of the country’s painful history under the Nazis and warnings of possible violence at a May Day demonstration on Tuesday that would be blamed on Nicolas Sarkozy. An increasingly desperate Sarkozy is pinning his hopes of saving his presidency on a single television debate against François Hollande on Wednesday, when he will depict the frontrunner in the polls as a dangerous leftist whose tax-and-spend policies will doom France to decades of decay.  He hopes to prod Hollande, who is sometimes compared to a wobbly caramel pudding, into collapsing like a soufflé by accusing him of … Continue reading →

France launched a massive manhunt Tuesday for the man who gunned down three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse Monday and three other people last week in incidents that have created an unprecedented terror alert in the country. French schools today (Tuesday) observed a minute’s silence after President Nicolas Sarkozy’s declaration on Monday. The President, who declared a maximum “scarlet” terror alert on the Midi-Pyrenees region, has also suspended his election campaign until at least Wednesday. The scarlet alert allows authorities widespread powers to disrupt daily life and implement sweeping security measures, including potentially closing rail terminals and airports or even halting water supplies. Mixed police … Continue reading →