Hardline Image Haunts Campaign of Sarkozy

Hardline image haunts campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy.

 Nicolas Sarkozy's portrayal as a dangerous rightwinger who scares voters dominated France's presidential campaign on Wednesday, forcing the frontrunner onto the defensive just four days before first round polling.

"The worrying Mr Sarkozy" headlined the leftwing daily Liberation over a story that said aides to the former interior minister were also concerned by his inability to soften his hardline image and broaden his appeal to moderate voters.

Sarkozy's closest rivals, Socialist Segolene Royal and third-placed centrist Francois Bayrou, are concentrating their fire on his character, seeking to make the vote a referendum on his personality as much as his policies.

Portraying him as an agitated, dangerous rightwinger, they say his inability to visit France's multi-ethnic suburbs without the support of riot police means he is incapable of being the unifying force a president is supposed to be.

A week of sharp exchanges with far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who saw in Sarkozy's talk on immigration, crime and national identity a bid to steal his voters, also harmed his efforts to rebrand himself as a milder, more open character.

"I'm attacked morning, noon and night and with such violence," Sarkozy told France Inter radio.

"I'm trying to tell the French people I will unite them, and to do that I have to love them, understand them, listen to them. That's what I'll do in the second round, if I make it."

The run-off vote is scheduled for May 6.

SARKOZY MAKEOVER

The rightwinger launched his moderate make-over with his Jan. 14 speech accepting his UMP's presidential nomination, telling a major rally "I have changed" around a dozen times.

"Sarkozy Mark II" curbed his naturally waspish tongue, softened his body language and tone, using Royal's buzz words of respect, confidence and debate in what some language experts saw as an attempt to "Segolenise" himself.

But a poll on Tuesday by the CSA institute put Royal and Sarkozy neck-and-neck for the first time in a month, suggesting he has still to convince the nation his rule will be more restrained than his rhetoric.

Bayrou, whose surge in the polls last month drew support from both right and left, mocked Sarkozy's recent visit to a French suburb, saying there were 326 police on duty for a meeting with 100 residents of a poor estate in case of unrest.

"How can one govern a country when one has raised tensions between people to that extent," he said on RTL radio.

Posters of Sarkozy have been systematically defaced across France, while the image of most of the other 11 candidates contesting the April 22 first round ballot are unscathed.

"Sarkozy's energy fascinates, his frenetic side worries people. The head of state has a monarchical, calming, guardian role which his personality does not yet reflect," Liberation said in an editorial on Wednesday.

Underlining public interest in Sarkozy's character, the news magazine Marianne ran an edition this week entitled "The Real Sarkozy -- what the major media dare not, or do not want to reveal", featuring a lengthy attack on his alleged excesses.

The weekly said the 300,000 print run sold out in 48 hours.

(Reuters)