Election Campaign: Marine Le Pen

President Nicolas Sarkozy Dept: You might think, if you had never experienced an election here before, that the French, otherwise fairly conservative in their values, have become wild-eyed extremists, dividing their intellectual energies between outright communism and something close to fascism, according to Globe and Mail. Of course, once the first-round election is done on Sunday night, the only contenders left will almost certainly be Mr. Hollande, who is leading at 29.5 per cent in the polls, and Mr. Sarkozy, currently at 27.5 per cent. Mr. Hollande is projected to win the runoff two weeks later with 56 per cent of the vote though French ballots have a history of defying predictions and another 20 per cent of the electorate seem poised to cast their lot with Marine Le Pen, whose father founded her National Front party as a platform for views that verge on Holocaust denial, and who, in a more cheerful but still extreme-right campaign, is vowing to eliminate virtually all immigration, shut France s borders and bring back the strap in schools. This election campaign has often been dominated by the witty, entertaining mass rallies of Mr. Melenchon and the incessant media outbursts of Ms. Le Pen. Between them, they have outshone the dour and over-familiar face of President Nicolas Sarkozy and his competent but grey challenger, centre-left leader Fran ois Hollande. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.