PARIS (Reuters) – President Nicolas Sarkozy may top the first round of a presidential election this month but still lose a runoff on May 6 as most fringe voters say they will back Socialist challenger Francois Hollande, opinion polls show.

Sarkozy pulled into the lead for the April 22 first ballot in yet another poll on Tuesday, but surveys for the second round have stabilized with Hollande firmly ahead, as supporters of other candidates prefer him to the conservative incumbent.

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s election race will pick up pace next week after being thrown off course by an Islamist gunman, with Nicolas Sarkozy finally unveiling his manifesto and opponents set to tear it apart.

Mohamed Merah’s killings of three soldiers, a rabbi and three children prompted presidential candidates to suspend campaigning for several days from March 19 and the nation is only just emerging from a distressed daze.

PARIS (Reuters) – French presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande has defended the idea of an unmarried first couple in the Elysee Palace if he wins the presidency on May 6, in what would be a potential break with protocol and tradition.

Asked whether he would wed longtime companion Valerie Trierweiler if he becomes president, the Socialist candidate said he had no intention of changing his principles to fit with tradition.

PARIS (Reuters) – Al Jazeera television said on Tuesday it would not broadcast video footage of three deadly shootings in southern France filmed by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman using a camera strapped to his body.

The Qatar-based news network also said it was declining all requests from other media outlets for copies of the footage.

PARIS, March 27 (Reuters) – President Nicolas Sarkozy urged
television networks on Tuesday not to broadcast video footage of
three deadly shootings in southern France filmed by an al
Qaeda-inspired gunman using a camera strapped to his body.

Qatar-based Al Jazeera is considering whether to show the
film, received at its Paris bureau on a memory stick late on
Monday, the network’s Paris bureau chief Zied Tarrouche said.

PARIS (Reuters) – A spate of shootings by an Islamist gunman looked at first sight like the kind of shock event that campaign managers thought might help French President Nicolas Sarkozy secure a second term in an April-May election.

But as the dust settles on the Toulouse killings, with the lone gunman dead and his brother in custody as the sole alleged accomplice, last week’s drama seems unlikely to prove an electoral game-changer, opinion polls and experts suggest.

PARIS (Reuters) – Despite his criticism of bankers and plan for a millionaires’ tax, French Socialist Francois Hollande could turn out to be a reforming president, his aides are keen to suggest.

On the campaign trail, Hollande espouses a traditional tax-and-spend platform to rally left-wing supporters and preserve his lead in most opinion polls ahead of an April-May presidential election.

PARIS (Reuters) – Despite his criticism of bankers and plan for a millionaires’ tax, French Socialist Francois Hollande could turn out to be a reforming president, his aides are keen to suggest.

On the campaign trail, Hollande espouses a traditional tax-and-spend platform to rally left-wing supporters and preserve his lead in most opinion polls ahead of an April-May presidential election.

PARIS (Reuters) – Perched on a stack of books to reach a lectern, peeping out from under Napoleon’s hat, or scowling as flies buzz around his head, Nicolas Sarkozy will be sorely missed by at least one person if he loses France’s presidential election.

Cartoonist Plantu, whose cheeky sketches on the front page of the highbrow daily Le Monde are a fixture of French politics, loathes Sarkozy’s policies but confesses to a sort of affection for a man his felt-tip pen has lampooned for years.

PARIS (Reuters) – President Nicolas Sarkozy’s threat to raise unilateral barriers to trade and migration unless the European Union toughens its stance has amplified a populist tone in France’s caustic election campaign but could rebound against him.

Both Sarkozy and his Socialist challenger, Francois Hollande, are trying to win back voters tempted by the political extremes with simplistic proposals that experts doubt they could or would implement in practice.