French Election: Sarkozy Still Fighting as Hollande Maintains Lead

May 03, 2012 from Al Jazeera English

Three days before election day, Nicolas Sarkozy and his rival for the French Presidency Francois Hollande have held rival rallies. A new opinion poll suggests Hollande's lead has narrowed slightly after Wednesday's heated television debate. Both men are still trying to convince the electorate they are the right person for the job. Al Jazeera's Simon McGregor-Wood was in Toulouse at the Hollande event, while Andrew Simmons was in Toulon at the Sarkozy rally.

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French presidential election, 2012

A presidential election was held in France on 22 April 2012, with a second round run-off held on 6 May to elect the President of France. The incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy was running for a second successive and, under the terms of the constitution, final term in the election. The ... Explore this topic

François Hollande

François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande is the 24th and current President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra. He was previously the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party from 1997 to 2008, and the Deputy of the National Assembly of France for Corrèze's 1st Constituenc... Explore this topic

Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy is a French politician who served as the 23rd President of France from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012. Before his presidency, he was leader of the Union for a Popular Movement. Under Jacques Chirac's presidency he served as Minister of the Interior in Jean-Pierr... Explore this topic

France

France, officially the French Republic, is a unitary semi-presidential republic located mostly in Western Europe, with several overseas regions and territories. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine ... Explore this topic

Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)

The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, being one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the centre-left Socialist Party. The UMP was formed in 2002 as a merger of several centre-right parties under Presi... Explore this topic

French Socialist Party

The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. The PS is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement. The party replaced the earli... Explore this topic

Politics of France

France is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, in which the President of France is head of state and the Prime Minister of France is the head of government, and there is a pluriform, multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legisla... Explore this topic

President of France

The President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is the head of state, supreme commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces and holder of the republics' constitutions, the president's powers, functions and duties, and their ... Explore this topic

Election rally

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Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. It lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 150 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea and 300 from the Atlantic Ocean, and 590 km away from Paris. With 1,202,889 inhabitants as of 1 January 2008, the Tou... Explore this topic

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French presidential election, 2012

Nicolas Sarkozy

François Hollande

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