Sarkozy elected French president
Forecasts showed Sarkozy getting around 53 per cent of the vote in the election runoff.
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“It will be worrying times for France if Sarkozy wins the presidency” Be Humble, UK |
Across the city at Socialist headquarters there was gloom and sorrow after the party crashed to its third consecutive presidential election defeat. It now faces the prospect of tough internal reform to make itself more appealing to voters.
In a speech at the UMP headquarters, Sarkozy said: “To all those French who did not vote for me, I want to say, beyond political battles, beyond differences of opinion, for me there is only one France. I want to tell them that I will be president of all the French.
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“I want to tell them [United States] that France will always be by their side when they will need her. But I want to tell them as well that friendship is accepting that one’s friends can act differently, and that a great nation like the United States has the duty to not obstruct the fight against global warming but on the contrary to head this struggle because what is at stake is the future of all humanity. France will make this struggle its first struggle.”
Although opinion polls regularly suggested voters preferred Royal, who was seeking to become France’s first woman head of state, they saw the uncompromising Sarkozy as a more competent leader with a more convincing economic programme.