In France, a Crucial Runoff for President
Eric Gaillard/Reuters
President Nicolas Sarkozy, with his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, voted in Paris on Sunday.
By NICOLA CLARK
Published: May 6, 2012
PARIS — French voters began casting their ballots on Sunday in the
runoff of a closely watched presidential election that will have
significant implications for Europe and the euro as the region struggles
to emerge from a prolonged economic malaise.
Related
-
In French Race, the Tortoise Sets His Own Pace (May 6, 2012)
-
Old Guard in Greece Faces Challenge in Elections (May 7, 2012)
-
Faltering German Party, a Coalition Partner to Merkel, Faces an Electoral Test (May 6, 2012)
Opinion polls in the final days showed the Socialist candidate, François Hollande, maintaining a narrow lead over President Nicolas Sarkozy,
whose popularity, along that of with other incumbent leaders across
Europe, has succumbed to the powerful undertow of unemployment,
austerity and looming recession.
With anxieties rising again over the fate of the single currency, the election in France
— as well as a snap parliamentary election in Greece on Sunday — is
being closely watched in European capitals and particularly in Berlin,
where Chancellor Angela Merkel has led the drive to cure the euro zone
debt and banking crisis with deep budget cuts and caps on future
spending. Such policies have come at a heavy political price for many of
Europe’s leaders, whose opponents, emboldened by waves of voter
resentment, have vowed to challenge the German push for deficit and debt
reduction in favor of new measures to stimulate economic growth.
At midday, Interior Ministry estimates put the early turnout at just
under 31 percent, slightly higher than the 28 percent who turned out at
the same point in the voting for the first round on April 22. About 46
million voters are registered for the runoff.
The last polling stations were scheduled to close at 8 p.m. and the
first official result estimates were expected shortly thereafter. French
law bars the early publication of exit polls, although media
organizations in neighboring Belgium and Switzerland were expected to
publish initial results online from districts where the polls close at 6
p.m. as soon as they are available — around 6:30 p.m.
Dressed in a dark suit and accompanied by his partner, the journalist
Valérie Trierweiler, Mr. Hollande, 57, cast his vote Sunday morning in
Tulle, the capital of his Corrèze constituency. Conceding that he had
slept “only briefly” overnight, Mr. Hollande, told reporters he was
bracing for a long day.
“It’s up to the French people to decide if it’s going to be a good day,” he said.
Under gray skies and amid intermittent rain showers, Nicole Hirsch, a
60-year-old retiree in the working-class 20th Arrondissement of Paris,
said she was voting for Mr. Hollande in the hope that he would “bring
the change that France needs.”
Lydia Sobieniak, 65, a former factory worker in Tulle, said she had also
voted for Mr. Hollande, although she was unsure “if he’s capable of
being president.”
“It’s going to be hard,” Ms. Sobieniak told The Associated Press. “Whoever it is there will be no miracles.”
Opinion polls published on Friday, the last day of campaigning, showed
the gap between Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Hollande had narrowed to between
four and five percentage points. While Mr. Sarkozy’s chances of
retaining power appeared slim, he remained confident, predicting that
the election would be decided by “a razor’s edge,” and spoke of a
possible “surprise.”
Mr. Sarkozy’s campaign suffered double setbacks last week.
On Tuesday, Marine Le Pen — the candidate of the populist National Front
who garnered 18 percent of the first-round vote — refused to endorse
either the president or Mr. Hollande, saying she would cast a blank
ballot. Then, on Friday, François Bayrou, a centrist who finished in
fifth with 9 percent of the vote, endorsed Mr. Hollande.
Analysts have said Mr. Sarkozy will need the votes of an overwhelming
majority of Ms. Le Pen’s supporters to win. But the latest surveys show
the president getting little more than 50 percent of the National Front
vote.
Mr. Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, cast their votes shortly
before midday at a high school in the staid 16th Arrondissement of
Paris. The couple left without speaking to the media.