Battle on for Hollande in French endgame

It was raining hard in Quimper today but the French Socialist’s presidential candidate, flush with his first round victory, François Hollande was out to thank the town and Brittany in general for their support.

He made his first speech of the key part of the campaign. Now it is just between him and the sitting president Nicolas Sarkozy.

“We achieved our first goal, to get the first place. We got it. It’s true that the left is its highest level for a long time, with 44 percent. But do the calculation, and 44 percent is not the same as 50 and something, so we need to get all the left voters together, all the left, united,” he said.

In Paris Hollande’s generals and policymakers gathered to digest the results, among them the party’s Secretary General, who is not counting any chickens just yet:

“All those who abstained or who voted for us or for the Front National, those who are afraid, those who are humiliated by the last five years, we should tell them that the real Republic is back, and the only one proposing that restoration is Francois Hollande.”
said Martine Aubry.

Hollande now has just two weeks to appeal to voters who did not support him in the first round to swing and stop Sarkozy’s re-election.

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