France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Socialist challenger Francois Hollande staged rival street rallies for tens of thousands of supporters Sunday, one week from their presidential election.
In a forceful display in the Place de la Concorde before a sea of tricolour banners, Sarkozy rallied his UMP party's right-wing faithful with an appeal to an "Eternal France" embodied by Moliere, Napoleon and Charles de Gaulle.
Further east, by the Chateau de Vincennes, Hollande told a similarly huge but visibly more diverse crowd that it was time for a change after five years of injustice and austerity at the hands of Sarkozy and financial markets.
Both events matched the campaigns' hopes and set the stage for a week of campaigning ahead of the April 22 first round vote, which is expected to see the pair chosen as frontrunners to proceed to a May 6 run-off.
For more: AFP: French rivals hold duelling Paris rallies
No comments:
Post a Comment