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Sarkozy rules out alliance with far right to win runoff

Xinhua, April 26, 2012

• Incumbent French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday ruled out any deal with the far right leader Marine Le Pen to win the May 6 presidential election runoff.

  "There will be no pact with the National Front. We have many points of disagreement," Sarkozy told France Info radio.

  The ruling UMP party and the National Front have disagreed on too many issues to imagine far-right ministers in government, he added.

  However, Sarkozy pledged to listen to the "suffering" of far rightists in a move to court Le Pen's supporters.

  "There will be no National Front ministers, but I refuse to demonize men and women who in voting for Marine Le Pen cast a crisis vote, a vote of anger, a vote of suffering and a vote of despair. I have to listen to their message and take them into account, and not think it's time to hold my nose," the conservative candidate stressed.

  Being the first president in power to be forced in the second place in an election's first round, the UMP candidate struggled to overturn results by enticing far rightists with repackaged proposals of tough immigration rules and secularism's guarantee.

  "I am obliged to consider that 18 percent of French people who vote for Marine Le Pen, is not 18 percent of French people who have ideas of the far right," Sarkozy explained.

  On Sunday's first round of presidential election, Sarkozy collected 27.18 percent of votes, 1.5 point behind the socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande. The far right candidate Marine Le Pen, ranked third with 17.9 percent of vote.

  Analysts said Sarkozy would need to convince at least three quarters of Le Pen's supporters and two thirds of those of the centrist candidate Francois Bayrou to to secure a second term at the Elysee Palace.

  OpinionWay-Fiducial poll on Tuesday showed 64 percent of Sarkozy backers want the conservative UMP party to strike a deal with the Front after Le Pen's unexpected high score.

  "The attitude of UMP voters is primarily motivated by their desire to see their champion wining the presidential election even if they have to go through a reconciliation with the party of Le Pen," said Bruno Jeanbart from the pollster.

  Opinion polls predict Hollande beating Sarkozy by 9 to 14 percentage points in an election expected to give France its first socialist president since Francois Mitterand quit office in 1995.

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