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Sarkozy Edges Royal by Five Points in France
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Nicolas Sarkozy heads to next Sunday's presidential election in France as the top contender, according to a tracking poll by Ipsos released by SFR and Le Point. 29.5 per cent of respondents would vote for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) candidate in the ballot.
Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party (PS) is second with 24.5 per cent, followed by Union for French Democracy (UDF) leader François Bayrou with 17.5 per cent, and Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front (FN) with 14 per cent.
Support is lower for Revolutionary Communist League (LCR) member Olivier Besancenot, Marie-George Buffet of the French Communist Party (PCF), Frédéric Nihous of Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Traditions (CPNT), farmer-activist José Bové, Arlette Laguiller of Workers' Struggle (LO), Dominique Voynet of the Greens (Verts), Movement for France (MPF) leader Philippe de Villiers, and Gérard Schivardi of the Worker's Party (PT).
Sarkozy served as France's interior minister. Royal is the leader of the regional government of Poitou-Charentes. In a prospective run-off scenario, Sarkozy holds a seven-point advantage over Royal. In addition, Bayrou leads Sarkozy by six points.
Yesterday, international soccer star Lilian Thuram criticized the UMP candidate, declaring, "Sarkozy's rhetoric isn't quasi-racist, it is racist. When you start to divide people and see one group here, Muslims there, the blacks over there, you teach people to see others as different. What is being integrated? My mother is French, my father is French. Why do I have to be 'integrated'? Because I am black. You'd never ask if a white man was integrated."
The UMP's Jacques Chirac won the presidential ballot in 1995, and was re-elected in a run-off over Le Pen in May 2002. The next election is scheduled for Apr. 22. If no candidate garners more than 50 per cent of all cast ballots, a run-off would take place on May 6.
Polling Data
Who would you vote for in the presidential election?
Apr. 13 | Apr. 12 | Apr. 10 | |
Nicolas Sarkozy | 29.5% | 30% | 30% |
Ségolène Royal | 24.5% | 24% | 23.5% |
François Bayrou | 17.5% | 18.5% | 19% |
Jean-Marie Le Pen | 14% | 13.5% | 13.5% |
Olivier Besancenot | 3.5% | 3.5% | 4% |
Marie-George Buffet | 2.5% | 2% | 1.5% |
Frédéric Nihous | 2% | 2% | 1.5% |
José Bové | 1.5% | 1.5% | 2.5% |
Arlette Laguiller | 1.5% | 1.5% | 2% |
Dominique Voynet | 1.5% | 1.5% | 1% |
Philippe de Villiers | 1.5% | 1.5% | 1% |
Gérard Schivardi | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% |
Run-Off Scenarios
Sarkozy v. Royal
Apr. 13 | Apr. 12 | Apr. 10 | |
Nicolas Sarkozy | 53.5% | 54% | 53.5% |
Ségolène Royal | 46.5% | 46% | 46.5% |
Sarkozy v. Bayrou
Apr. 13 | Apr. 12 | Apr. 10 | |
François Bayrou | 53% | 53% | 53.5% |
Nicolas Sarkozy | 47% | 47% | 46.5% |
Source: Ipsos / SFR / Le Point
Methodology: Interviews with 1,279 French adults, conducted from Apr. 11 to Apr. 13, 2007. No margin of error was provided.