| Author (Person) | Carnegy, Hugh, Daneshkhu, Scheherazade |
|---|---|
| Series Title | Financial Times |
| Series Details | 12.3.12 |
| Publication Date | 12/03/2012 |
| Content Type | News |
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Report of a major televised speech by President Nicolas Sarkozy on the 11 March 2012 to a rally near Paris of tens of thousands of supporters in which he threatened to pull France out of the European Union’s passport-free travel zone (Schengen Agreement) and made a number of other populist declarations on issues such as immigration and protecting industry. Following the broadcast, an opinion poll published on the 13 March 2012 for the first time put President Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of François Hollande, his Socialist party challenger, in the race for the first round of the French presidential election due on 22 April 2012. The Ifop/Fiducial poll gave Mr Sarkozy 28.5% support in the first round, up 1.5% since the end of February 2012, while Mr Hollande slipped back by the same margin to 27%, falling behind the president after months of leading consistently across all polls. Mr Sarkozy was accused of behaving like a British eurosceptic as François Hollande supporters reacted furiously to his threat to pull out of the European Union’s borderless travel zone. However, just before the first round of voting on the 22 April 2012 the FT: Blog suggested that the government of Nicolas Sarkozy pushed the issue back onto the EU agenda, this time with German assistance. |
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| Subject Categories | Justice and Home Affairs |
| Countries / Regions | Europe, France |
