Tommy, taxing the rich to pay for pointless government spending ain't the brightest way to ensure those who have the ability to improve the economy won't leave for better climes, since they hard work is paying for those who can't. It is not fair and counter-productive to the economy. Maybe if working beyond 35 hours and stop striking on a drop of a hat might improve their economy.... Unemployment is very high in France and the poor don't create jobs too often, so punishing the rich is not very bright idea, but socialists don't let common sense rule their logic.

Eric, Pittsburgh, PA

In spite of some 'clichés' - ' the French are emotional... like indians (!!!) that made me laugh - it is interresting to read what the Brits think of french politics. You seem to be more confident than I am/we are in the Rights success.
The fact is that when you see people who never wake up from monday to tuesday to go to work, suddenly waking up on sunday to go to vote, you may be sure that the Lefts will be successful.
Some people say Sarkozy made a policy based on fear, but when I heard S Royal dealing with the awful liberalism ...
France looks like GB in the 70's : country of strike

Philippe, Saint Malo, France

Ms Royal should lead a government in nationalising the commanding hieghts of the economy, drasticaly cut military spending, increase taxes on the rich. Build houses, beautiful houses and city parks, build more schools, hospitals and very fast intergrated transport links! spend spend and tax the rich!

Tommy Carroll

Tommy Carroll, Liverpool, UK

There have been three periods of cohabitation

John, Bristol, UK

French people are emotional like Indians, thats why I wish they choose Ms Royal as Mr Sarkozy seems to be playing with the emotions of the French voters as normaly hard core politicians do. On the contrary Ms Royal seems like a whiff of cool breeze for a change.

rajeev singh, Jaipur, India

Wouldn't it be nice if we could vote for our new leader, as the French can? Once Gordon Brown has been crowned PM by the Labour Party, four of our last eight Prime Ministers will have been chosen initially without any popular vote. The previous three were Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Jim Callaghan and John Major, hardly a constellation of stars. Now we have the deeply unloved Gordon. French cheese might not be all it's cracked up to be, but French democracy seems superior to ours.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

French leftists are motivated by silly beliefs and cheap melodrama. Royal gives them exactly what they want. France will be even more of a disaster if she's elected.

moose, manchester,

France needs a powerfull strong minded president, neither of the front runners in my view have what it takes to lead this magnificent country onwards. They seem so insignificant and don't seem to have the personality of past presidents.

Tony Morelli, Burley-in-Wharfdeale, England

Jon Livesey's question (president or grief counsellor) sounds somewhat like a sarcastic joke but the problems in France are not funny. They may not call it grief but the impact of the deaths of 2 young people on the psyche of many in France has been serious and there is a need for those who will be in power, whoever that may be, to find some way of bringing healing to those sections of the coountry who have been labelled and dismissed as '"scum" ("racaille") by Sarkozy. The behaviour of some in authority, including some police officers, towards the young in the banlieues has caused France to see its own fractures. Other European countries (in the 20s and 30s and in the 80s) have seen the effects of ignoring and marginalising sections of their own community. This will not be joke if those in power continue to push the wrong buttons.

Steve, Preston, UK

I don't know how it is seen outside France, but personnaly I don't feel like Ms Royal has the build and the profile of a President... I hope that there won't be too much voters that will be attracted to her... moreover, I believe that we have enough social in France, I don't know any other country in the world where there is that much social laws... Ms Royal will only make French people more lazy than they are right now (and God knows we are !) and she will only create a society of assisted people...

William, Lille, France

Actually, I'd love to see Ms. Royal win, to hear the virtues of socialism trumpeted from on high, to see the state component of GDP go from 50 to 75 percent (or higher!), and to watch the whole morass slowly ooze into third-rate slime. Perhaps then this once-great country will wake up and get itself back on the right-track. Right now it is in a confused moribund state.

Winston Lee, SF Bay Area, US

“a democracy where people breathe freely”.

S.R. said this sentence, because in France since 2002, N.S applies a fear politic.For example, he talks about young people from city as "racaille" who steal and breake anything with no respect of the society . NB: racaille stand for vermin. During is mandat as interior minister, he made a pressure on people. Futhermore, during his first round campain, he took some idea from JM.Le Pen, like " France, or you love it either you leave it" (in french, "la France, soit vous l'aimez soit vous la quittez"). That's why, the PS talks about a new breathe and maybe a new way to gouvern.

Florian Delclaux, Valence, France

After listening to the various addresses to party faithful last night, I find it hard to believr that a majority of Bayrou's voters will prefer Royal to Sarkozy. Royal showed her usual wishy-washy wordy "motherhood" sentiments whilst Sarkozy was direct and statemanlike, not at all the demon that is painted by his opponents.

One worry for me is that he is pandering to French protectionist instincts but that will not deter any French votes.

Tim York, Lasne,

France has turned to be more monarchical than ever before, at least since Louis Philippe I d'Orleans, King of the French was deposed in 1848. They have as candidates a Madame Royal (like the daughter of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of Austria, later Duchesse d’Angoulème), but in this case is just Ségolène Royal. Nicolas Sarkozy, the champion of the French nationalism and the man who promised to stop new immigrants coming into France, is the son of a Hungarian noble Paul Sárközy von Nagy Bocsa, coming not for the high aristocracy but from a family of landowners and officers of the Habsburg Monarchy, like his grandfather who fought against the Rumanians and the Brits in WW1 as a captain of the Royal Regiment of Hungarian Hussars. They left Hungary, when Admiral Horthy broke relations with Nazi German and they invaded the country. Because of his wife Jewish roots, the Sárközy von Nagy Bocsa family, left his country with his family and went to France, original story do you think?

Louis v. Wetzler, Buenos Aires, Argentina

“a democracy where people breathe freely”.

I find it difficult to take seriously a candidate who speaks in such vapid cliches. It's no better than Reagan's "Breakfast in America", oh, sorry, "Morning in America" .

Are the French electing a President or a grief counsellor?

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/US