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French candidates make final push

Sunday's presidential election will whittle the 12 candidates to two. The runoff is May 6.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 20, 2007

PARIS - French presidential candidates promising change for their disillusioned country made a last-minute push for votes Thursday, with final flag-waving rallies, a publicity blitz and one big-name endorsement from Spain.

After 12 years under President Jacques Chirac, the French are eager for change. Turnout in Sunday's first round of voting is expected to be higher than in 2002, and polls show that millions of voters still have not fully made up their minds.

Most of the 12 candidates were holding their last campaign rallies Thursday before the weekend vote to whittle down the field to two for the decisive runoff on May 6.

Barring an enormous surprise, polls suggest only three candidates stand a chance: Nicolas Sarkozy, a pro-American conservative; Socialist Segolene Royal, who would be France's first female president; and center-right candidate Francois Bayrou, who bills himself as the unifier that France needs.

Sarkozy has been the front-runner in every poll this year. The biggest questions are whether Bayrou or Royal will face Sarkozy or if far-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen can pull another upset. Le Pen stunned France and Europe by qualifying for the runoff against Chirac five years ago, but was trounced in the second round.

The vote will partly be one of personalities - the top candidates have often strayed from party orthodoxies, plucking ideas from the political left and right to revive a lackluster economy and better integrate millions of black and Arab citizens from poor areas swept up by three weeks of rioting in 2005.

"The three candidates who can today hope to win are very popular people, and that's why there's also a keen interest," said Pierre Giacometti, director of the Ipsos agency. "We cannot exclude the possibility that Sunday we will have a very high participation rate - around 80 percent."

Royal, whose gaffes on trips abroad cost her candidacy some momentum, sought to inject some gravitas into her bid Thursday by bringing Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to speak at a rally in southern Toulouse.

Spain's Socialist premier - the first major international leader to publicly take sides in the French election this year - was effusive in his support for Royal.

"Segolene incarnates personal impetuousness, a fresh character and optimism," Zapatero told an estimated 15,000 supporters.

Sarkozy's team targeted undecided voters with a promotional blitz, in which more than 20,000 supporters were handing out fliers and other freebies. They hosted a ski race in the Alps and games of petanque - French bowling - in Paris.

[Last modified April 20, 2007, 01:11:36]