France: Sarkozy trails socialist rival in presidential race

Recent polls show French president Nicolas Sarkozy falling further behind his Socialist rival Francois Hollande. Candidates from smaller parties are gaining more support.

A survey conducted on March 2-3 shows Sarkozy at 23 per cent as against 30.5 per cent for the leader Hollande. The gap between the two candidates widened by 1.5 percentage points since Feb. 19th. The first round of the election is on April 22.

The anti-euro candidate Marine Le Pen also gained a percentage point to 15 per cent even with the centrist Francois Bayrou who gained two percentage points.

If no candidate gets a majority on the first ballot the top two will face a runoff. In a runoff polls show Sarkozy again losing out with 42 per cent against 58 for Hollande. This gap is 6 percentage more than on Feb. 19th. For more see this article.