(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy heads a list of potential candidates for the next presidential election in France but his support is lower than his vote total in the first round of the 2007 ballot, according to a poll by Ifop published in Sud Ouest. 28 per cent of respondents would vote for Sarkozy of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in the 2012 election.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy heads a list of potential candidates for the next presidential election in France but his support is lower than his vote total in the first round of the 2007 ballot, according to a poll by Ifop published in Sud Ouest. 28 per cent of respondents would vote for Sarkozy of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in the 2012 election.
Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party (PS) is second with 20.5 per cent, followed by Democratic Movement (MD) founder François Bayrou with 19 per cent, Olivier Besancenot of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) with eight per cent, and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the far-right National Front with 7.5 per cent.
Support is lower for Movement for France (MPF) leader Philippe de Villiers, Dominique Voynet of the Greens (Verts), Marie-George Buffet of the French Communist Party (PCF), Frédéric Nihous of Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions (CPNT), Arlette Laguiller of Workers’ Struggle (LO), farmer-activist José Bové, and Gérard Schivardi of the Worker’s Party (PT).
In April 2007, Sarkozy was the top vote-getter in the first round of the presidential election with 31.18 per cent of the vote, followed by Royal with 25.87 per cent. In May, Sarkozy won the run-off with 53.06 per cent of the vote. Sarkozy appointed François Fillon—who had been his adviser and presidential campaign leader—as prime minister.
On Apr. 16, a French newspaper reported that Sarkozy had described Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as a "not very clever" man while talking to a group of legislators. On Apr. 18, Royal announced she had written an apology note to Zapatero, who is a personal friend of hers, saying, "Those statements represent neither France nor the French people".
Polling Data
If the first round of the presidential election took place this Sunday, for which one of the following candidates would you vote?
|
Nicolas Sarkozy |
28% |
|
Ségolène Royal |
20.5% |
|
François Bayrou |
19% |
|
Olivier Besancenot |
8% |
|
Jean-Marie Le Pen |
7.5% |
|
Philippe de Villiers |
4% |
|
Dominique Voynet |
4% |
|
Marie-George Buffet |
3% |
|
Frédéric Nihous |
2% |
|
Arlette Laguiller |
2% |
|
José Bové |
1% |
|
Gérard Schivardi |
1% |
Source: Ifop / Sud Ouest
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 854 French voters, conducted on Apr. 23 and Apr. 24, 2009. No margin of error was provided.
