SOCIALIST CANDIDATE François Hollande moved to shield himself against attacks from the right yesterday by pledging to reduce immigration flows and retain the ban on Islamic face veils if elected president of France next week.
Mr Hollande, who leads the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in opinion polls just over a week before the run-off, has come under pressure over his stance on immigration as the two candidates appeal to the 6.3 million voters who backed far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the first round.
“In a period of crisis, which we are experiencing, limiting economic immigration is necessary and essential,” the socialist said in a tentative concession to far-right voters.
Mr Hollande has been criticised by Mr Sarkozy for proposing to give foreign residents a vote in local elections. He answered evasively when asked repeatedly on prime-time television on Thursday whether he thought there were too many foreigners in France, as Mr Sarkozy and Ms Le Pen have both proclaimed in campaign speeches.
Clarifying his position after his evasions drew criticism, he told French radio yesterday that, if elected, he would have parliament fix an annual quota for non-EU nationals coming to France to take up jobs.
“I don’t think there will ever be zero immigration, there will always be legal immigration. Can we reduce the number? That’s a debate,” he said.
Mr Hollande said he would uphold and enforce a ban on face-covering Muslim veils, even though he abstained in a 2010 parliamentary vote when Mr Sarkozy proposed the law.
Mr Sarkozy and his UMP party have said there will be no electoral deal with the National Front before parliamentary elections in June, but he defended his efforts to win over its supporters.
Insisting there was no contradiction in going after centrist voters and those of Le Pen, Mr Sarkozy said people across the spectrum shared his concerns about open borders.
“Do you think those you call centrists think it’s entirely normal that just anybody can come in to France?” he asked an interviewer. “Do you think that giving immigrants the right to vote shocks only Le Pen voters?”
Opinion polls suggest Mr Hollande is on course to win the run-off next Sunday, with an Ifop survey yesterday putting the socialist in the lead by 55 per cent to Mr Sarkozy’s 45 per cent.
The pressure on Mr Sarkozy increased yesterday when new figures showed jobless claims rose for the 11th month in March to hit their highest level since September 1999.
French unemployment is just below 10 per cent, and Mr Sarkozy has been haunted during the campaign by his pledge in 2007 to bring unemployment down to 5 per cent within five years.
An election race dominated from the start by the economy and Mr Sarkozy’s record has now boiled down to whether the incumbent can lure enough of Ms Le Pen’s supporters to his side in the run-off.
A poll published yesterday found that 31 per cent of Le Pen voters planned to abstain on May 6th, while 48 per cent would vote Mr Sarkozy and 21 per cent would back Mr Hollande.
The socialist’s position is enhanced by a strong transfer rate from left-wing radical Jean-Luc Mélenchon and centrist François Bayrou, who finished fourth and fifth, respectively, last Sunday.
A Harris Interactive poll found that of those voters who backed Mr Bayrou in round one, 41 per cent would support Mr Hollande and 36 per cent would vote for Mr Sarkozy. Mr Hollande also stands to benefit from the backing of 92 per cent of those who supported Mr Mélenchon, who won 11 per cent in the first-round vote.
