Sarkozy Battling For French Presidency

Nicolas Sarkozy is battling to survive as French President after he was runner-up in the first round of voting to Socialist rival Francois Hollande. With 98% of the votes counted, Mr Hollande is in the lead winning 28.6% of the vote. Mr Sarkozy is just behind his rival with 27.1%. 

"Tonight I become the candidate of all the forces who want to turn one page and turn over another," Mr Hollande said following the vote. Mr Sarkozy, speaking at his campaign headquarters on Paris' Left Bank, said he recognised voters' concerns about jobs and immigration, and "the concern of our compatriots to preserve their way of life". 

In more bad news for Mr Sarkozy, a new opinion poll suggested he will lose the May 6 second round run-off with Mr Hollande. The survey suggests the Socialist leader will beat the centre-right incumbent by 54% to 46%. The Ipsos survey, commissioned by French public television and the daily Le Monde newspaper, predicted a majority of those who backed candidates eliminated in the first round would support Mr Hollande. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, of the National Front, got 18.1% and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon polled 11.1%.

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Sarkozy Denies Gaddafi's £42m Donation

A document published by left-wing investigative website Mediapart alleges the funds were paid towards Mr Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign by Libya's deposed leader.

But Mr Sarkozy, who referred to France's active role in the Nato campaign that helped overthrow Col Gaddafi's regime, told French TV channel TF1: "If he had financed it, I wasn't very grateful.

"It's grotesque and I am sorry that I am being interrogated about declarations of Gaddafi or his son on an important channel like TF1.

"When one quotes Mr Gaddafi, who is dead, his son, who has blood on his hands, that is a regime of dictators, assassins, whose credibility is zero... frankly, I think we have sunk low enough in the political debate."

The claims are made in a report based on testimony by a former doctor of a French arms dealer who is said to have arranged the campaign and follow similar allegations made by Col Gaddafi's son, Saif al Islam.

It came as Mr Sarkozy overtook Socialist challenger Francois Hollande for the first time in an opinion poll on the first round of France's April-May leadership election.

The poll, published after Mr Sarkozy attacked the European Union's trade and immigration policies, suggest the conservative incumbent would still lose to Mr Hollande in a second-round run-off, but by a narrower margin.

Meanwhile, far-right leader Marine Le Pen, ranked third in polls, said she had secured the 500 official sponsors needed to enter the presidential contest.

Candidates have until Friday to obtain the backing of 500 elected officials needed to compete in the April 22 first round, after which the two candidates with the most votes will contest a May 6 run-off.

A failure by Ms Le Pen to gather enough signatures could have had a significant effect on expectations, given her 16% support level.

Mr Sarkozy, who has trailed Mr Hollande in polls for months, saw an Ifop/Fiducial survey put his first-round score at 28.5%, compared to 27% for Mr Hollande.

But the poll gave Mr Hollande 54.5% of the second-round vote, compared to Mr Sarkozy's 45.5%.

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France greets the birth of the First Baby with a yawn

France, or part of France, greeted the birth of President Nicolas Sarkozy's daughter with an ostentatious yawn yesterday. 

The centre-left newspaper Libération ignored the happy event completely. 

The upmarket Le Monde, carried only a teasing article on page two, mocking the obsession of the twittosphere and foreign press with Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's pregnancy.

It also led its front page with the story that the world population was now 7 billion, implying, perhaps, that one baby was incidental. 

President Sarkozy was equally coy. He spoke of "very great happiness" but turned up at his wife's clinic yesterday morning with a sheaf of documents and departed after 40 minutes for an official engagement in western France.

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It's a girl for French President Sarkozy, wife Bruni

Carla Bruni, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has given birth to a girl, a very close family friend told NEWSMEN on Wednesday. 

The mother is doing well, the friend said. Sarkozy, 56, was seen earlier leaving the French capital's La Muette clinic, where Bruni gave birth, according to French media.

It is the first child for the couple, who wed in February 2008. Bruni, 43, announced in early September that she was pregnant and vowed to keep the child out of the spotlight.

Sarkozy divorced his wife of more than 11 years before marrying Bruni. He has three children from that marriage. Bruni, a former supermodel and singer, previously dated singers Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger.

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