French candidate Hollande pledges to cut debt

Not many people realize this but in spite of polling anywhere between 16% and 22% in recent election polls, Marine Le Pen might not be included on the French presidential ballot. The reason is Le Pen needs 500 signatures by elected official supporting her campaign. Le Pen says she only has 350. I had been aware of this for some time but figured she could scrape up 500 signatures from a pool of 47,000 or so bureaucrats eligible to sign. Perhaps not.

Latest polls show French President Sarkozy is losing ground to right-wing anti-euro candidate Marine Le Pen in the first round of the France presidential election. Via Google translate, please consider Le Pen and Bayrou Back

As goes the French economy, so goes the reelection chances of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Although Sarkozy leads in round one, polls show that lead is shrinking at a pace that suggests he will not carry round one. More importantly, Sarkozy is trailing again by double digits in polls for the decisive round two. For those not familiar with elections in France, round one pits candidates from all the parties against each other on April 22. If no one gets 50%, the top two finishers square off in round two, on May 6.

French voters went to the polls today to winnow a ten-candidate presidential field down to the "right-of-center" incumbent (Nicolas Sarkozy) and his socialist challenger (Francois Hollande). The two will face each other in a?? runoff election on May 6. A Sarkozy loss would be the first of an incumbent French president in ??thirty years. It ...