The race for the French presidency gathered pace yesterday when Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-right contender, won overwhelming endorsement from President Chirac’s former party with a Blair-style manifesto focused on work and personal responsibility.

Mr Sarkozy, 51, the Interior Minister, who took over the Union for a Popular Majority two years ago and was its only nominee, basked in triumph after winning 98 per cent of the party vote to stand in the spring elections.

He was acclaimed at a rally in a southern Paris exhibition hall at which more than 80,000 activists staged a show of force in an attempt to counter the momentum of Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate, who is narrowly leading the field.

Mr Chirac stayed away, sending no blessing to the political heir whom he has been reluctant to support. However, Dominique de Villepin, the Prime Minister, turned up and all the President’s other key allies threw their weight behind the party leader, who wants to create a new entrepreneurial spirit to equip France for competition in a globalised world.

Rallying to Mr Sarkozy for the first time, Michèle Alliot-Marie, the Defence Minister, made clear that, as its leading woman, she would head the campaign’s attack on Ms Royal. While Mr Sarkozy observed a gentlemanly distance from his opponent, she denounced Ms Royal. With her vague, feel-good campaign, the Socialist was deceiving France and damaging its image abroad, Ms Alliot-Marie said.

In an emotional speech, Mr Sarkozy claimed that he had acquired a new humane side and cast himself as the true heir to the values claimed by Ms Royal and the Socialists. “The Left talks about work but wants time off,” he said. “I want to be the President of France who puts work at the heart of society.” Striking a tone that could have come from Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair, Mr Sarkozy painted a vision of a ‘France of opportunities’ where everyone could become a homeowner and no one should receive unemployment benefits without performing useful activity.

“Work creates work and wealth for the nation,” he said, contrasting his approach to the “devaluation” of work brought about by the Socialist-inspired 35-hour maximum working week.

Signalling a desire to rise above his partisan past, Mr Sarkozy concluded: “I ask you to understand that I will be the candidate not just of the UMP, that at the moment you have chosen me I must turn towards all the French people. I must unite them, I must convince them that together everything will be possible,” he said.

Dwelling on the problems of immigrants, working women and the poor, Mr Sarkozy sought to allay the reputation that he has earned in his ministerial job as a heartless law-enforcer. He emphasised his own origins as the child of immigrant families. “I have understood that humanity is a strength, not a weakness. I have changed,” Mr Sarkozy said from a rock-concert style stage bedecked in the tricolour.

A poll yesterday by the Ifop organisation showed that Mr Sarkozy’s image of harshness remains his biggest handicap. His personality worries 51 per cent of voters, it found. All polls indicate that Mr Sarkozy and Ms Royal will beat an array of minor candidates in the first poll round on April 22 and take part in a run-off two weeks later. Both will then fight to conquer the middle ground.

Mr Sarkozy and Ms Royal are figures from the political establishment posing as outsiders. Both promise to revive France without endangering its strong welfare state.

Election race

March 16 Deadline for sending endorsements. Candidates require 500 mayoral signatures

March 20 Official candidate list released

April 9 Campaign starts

April 20 Campaign ends

April 22 First round of voting. To be elected President in first round, Mr Sarkozy must win absolute majority of popular vote

April 25 Official results announced

April 27 Candidate list for second round published

May 6 Second round of voting. The two candidates with most votes in the first round compete directly in another national vote

May 10 Results announced

May 17 End of Jacques Chirac’s presidency

Source: Times archives

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