Word: penned
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...strong, 18.5% showing by Francois Bayrou of the Union for French Democracy party casts the centrist in the role of possible kingmaker going into the second round. The weight of the Bayrou vote was further enhanced by the electoral whipping of extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who in France's last presidential race in 2002 shocked the nation by making it into the final against incumbent President Jacques Chirac with nearly 18%. This time around, the huge turnout limited the National Front leader to just 11%. The key to the outcome of the runoff will be whom Bayrou...
...Royal ending in a 50-50% tie. Meanwhile, Sarkozy - who built his hard-line, law-and-order reputation as France's Interior Minister - has sparked outrage among rivals and even consternation among his backers by embracing crime-fighting policies and immigration proposals that some critics have likened to Le Pen's xenophobia. His electoral pledge to create a new "ministry of immigration and national identity," critics claim, was an attempt to imply foreigners are a threat to Frenchness and was aimed at luring Le Pen voters...
...left and ecologist candidates on the assumption that they would have a second-round opportunity to ensure that Socialist Lionel Jospin beat out incumbent President Jacques Chirac, to cost the Socialists a place in the second round: Instead, Chirac faced the far-right National Front's Jean-Marie Le Pen in the run-off, putting many voters for whom Jospin had not been sufficiently left-wing into the incongruous position of having to vote for the center-right Chirac in order to keep out Le Pen...
...lieutenants to begin sketching plans for government as if their victory were assumed. But Sarkozy, too, faces a balancing act. Maintaining his two- to four-point lead over Royal depends on him continuing to attract at least some of the almost 17% of French voters who backed Le Pen in 2002. It is to secure their votes that Sarkozy has made calls for a clampdown on immigration and emphasis on France's national identity and Christian roots a centerpiece of his campaign...
...curmudgeonly 79-year-old Le Pen, however, still appears to attract the bulk of the anti-immigration vote, running fourth with 14% of the vote (five points behind Bayrou). He can't win, of course, but his persistent appeal shows that for part of the French electorate, the most utile vote remains one that declares a pox on the French political class as a whole...