( L - R ) Sarkozy, Royal, Le pen, Bayrou PARIS (AP):
France's presidential candidates are getting nervous. With just four days to go until the election, the race is too close to call. So they're saying anything that might win over undecided voters.
The candidates are trying to be all things to all people. Take poll leader Nicolas Sarkozy. Suddenly, the free-market conservative is quoting a Marxist philosopher.
Socialist Segolene Royal, No. 2 in the polls, proclaimed herself the candidate of "audacity" in an interview Wednesday with Metro newspaper. Then, perhaps wondering whether that might alienate some voters, she added, "I promise a secure audacity" - a comment as puzzling in French as in the English translation.
Though Sarkozy has led the polls for months, there are big unknowns: opinion polls suggest as many as two in five voters have not yet chosen their candidate for Sunday's balloting.
Advance almost certain
Sarkozy looks almost certain to advance to the run-off on May 6, pollsters say. He received a boost yesterday with backing from former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who once led the centrist party that one rival candidate, Francois Bayrou, now heads. Giscard said Sarkozy gets his vote in part because of his "capacity to move forward."
Sarkozy's opponent in the run-off could be Royal, or Bayrou, who tries to bridge the left-right divide, or even in a long shot far-right firebrand Jean-Marie Le Pen.
After 12 years of stagnation under 74-year-old Jacques Chirac, this election was supposed to rejuvenate French politics, getting voters excited about a new generation of political leaders. The three leading contenders are all in their 50s.
But much of the enthusiasm has worn off, partly because voters are confused and dissatisfied with the choice on offer. Many complain the campaign has been hijacked by politicians' opportunistic attempts to boost poll numbers any way they can.
Candidates have neglected no niche audience, however small. The three main candidates all gave interviews to a magazine dedicated to wood houses. Bayrou spoke to Funerarium, a magazine for funeral parlours. Royal talked to Rottweiler News.
