Just to complete your report:

Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, the two top scorers in the 1st round of the French presidential election, 31.11% and 25.83% respectively, have 11 days to convince French voters to elect them president of the Republic.

A televised debate on 2nd May has been set between the protagonists. Negotiations between key men of the right-wing UMP and left-wing Socialist Party are underway to outline the debate’s ‘rules of engagement’. The runoff election is on 6th May.

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Personally, Ségolène Royal’s campaign rhetorics have always turned around a “maternal presidency” and the only time she vividly describes her would-be leadership is when she sums up her speeches with the phrase “l’ordre juste” (akin to some form of “a disciplined society”) but even then, Ms Royal fails to inject further substance to her idea as to what the role of a French president truly is. (Image captures from Le Monde)

Ms Royal takes extreme care of her words when she delivers them to her public, not wanting to be seen to be too hard nor too soft, neither too hardline left-wing nor veering towards the center either.

The only time she gets really passionate about the subject of ‘leadership’ and how to get France out of the economic doldrums, is when she goes into some kind of attack frenzy against Nicolas Sarkozy, on whose aggressive personality she clearly wants to capitalize (she absolutely avoids touching the issue of uncontrolled immigration), all the while insisting that hers is a calm demeanour, something she’s clearly borrowed from her former mentor, Socialist François Mitterand, “La Force Tranquile”.

But typical of a campaign run on fear and hate of the French right embodied by Sarkozy, once hardline left-wing Royal and Socialist Party stalwarts describe a Sarkozy presidency with words that evoke ‘fear’, ‘danger’, ‘public confrontation’ – uncanny similitude with what President Bush used in his campaign diatribes to win his second term – and go as far as delivering an ‘extremist’ view that a right-wing Sarkozy presidency could provoke a ‘civil war.’ How incredibly and utterly stupid.

One thing is certain: We don’t need a nanny president in France.

I voted for Nicolas Sarkozy in the first round (and will vote for him again on 6th May) not only because I’m a traditional right-wing UMP member but also because I firmly believe, Nicolas Sarkozy has a much needed modern and forward looking presidential platform that France needs today, a platform that cannot be run by the cautious, outmoded ideologies of the French Socialist Party.

I do believe that Sarkozy will succeed President Chirac in the Elysée.

That leaves those who voted for Bayrou. If they’re voting “anyone but Sarkozy or Royal”, they’ll probably stay home. That would give Sarkozy the victory.

Otherwise it depends on how they break. If they split evenly, Sarkozy wins.

I don’t see how Royal can win this. Sarkozy will win.