MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Hollande or Sarkozy, on Monday the Berlin-Paris axis reviews EU austerity policies

Sarkozy is catching up but still trailing socialist Hollande

Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy made an impassioned final appeal to voters on Friday, saying that a Socialist victory could send France spiraling the way of Greece, as polls showed him narrowing his challenger’s lead two days before the vote.

Final opinion polls put Francois Hollande’s advantage at as little as four points. But Sarkozy faced an uphill battle after Hollande turned in a polished performance in their only television debate on Wednesday, and far-right and centrist leaders declined to back the unpopular president.

Centrist candidate Francois Bayrou appeared to drive a nail into Sarkozy’s political coffin by declaring on Thursday that he would vote for Hollande. In a withering attack, he accused the conservative leader of pandering to the xenophobic far-right and being obsessed with immigration.

National Front candidate Marine Le Pen, who won 17.9% on the April 22 first round, had earlier refused to endorse Sarkozy and said she would cast a blank ballot.

At his final campaign rally in the west coast resort of Les Sables d’Olonne, Sarkozy told flag-waving supporters they could still achieve a sensational turnaround on Sunday. If they do not, he will be the first president to fail to win re-election since Valery Giscard d’Estaing in 1981.

“On Sunday, the outcome will be on a razor’s edge,” Sarkozy said, lashing out at critics of his drift to the right.

“The people of France have never been so injured hounded and manipulated as in recent weeks … The silent majority should not have to put up with insults, intolerance and lack of respect.”

Hollande spent his final day of campaigning in the northeast region of Moselle, one of the National Front’s strongholds. “I do not want a France that is divided between religions, that does not trust itself,” he told crowds.

An opinion poll by Ifop-Fiducial on Friday suggested Sarkozy had cut Hollande’s lead to just four percentage points, the narrowest margin to date.

“Every vote is going to count,” the president told France 3 television, calling for a massive turnout. “I love my country and I don’t want to see it go the same way as Greece. I don’t want spending, deficits and rising debt, and risk.”

The prospect of a victory for Hollande – who has pledged to raise taxes on big companies and the rich and to temper a German-inspired drive for austerity in Europe – had initially alarmed some investors. He would be the first Socialist head of state since Francois Mitterrand left office in 1995.

Yet French 10-year bond yields slipped below 2.9% on Friday – their lowest level since October – suggesting there is no panic about Hollande, who has stressed he would aim to quickly pass laws to balance the budget by 2017 if elected.

Despite his lead, Hollande warned his supporters against complacency on Friday, urging a massive turnout that would give the Socialists momentum to win parliamentary elections in June.

“I want a large victory,” he told RTL radio. “The French must give the winner the means to act. Do not leave a hobbled victor who will have problems from the day after the vote.”

The French vote could usher in a change of direction in European economic policy towards promoting growth.

The runoff coincides with parliamentary elections in Greece, where voters are set to punish mainstream parties for enforcing EU/IMF-imposed austerity, and comes a week before a major German regional election in which Chancellor Angela Merkel may suffer a mid-term rebuff to her strict austerity policies.

Merkel’s government has appeared increasingly relaxed at the prospect of a Hollande victory since he made it plain he would not seek to change the essence of a German-backed budget discipline pact signed by 25 EU leaders last month.

“We will work closely together with France, no matter what happens in the election,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday.

If elected, Hollande would seek to lay the foundations of a new Franco-German consensus on growth and smooth bilateral relations on his first trip to Berlin, his campaign manager Pierre Moscovici said.

Friday was the last day of official campaigning before a blackout from midnight. Voting booths open at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Sunday and close at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), except in big cities where they will stay open until 8 p.m. Projections of the result based on a partial vote count will be published once the last polling stations close.