PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared Thursday to have put an end to Socialist Francois Hollande's hitherto consistent lead in first round voting intentions for the presidential race.
The right-winger was also narrowing the Socialist's lead in the run-off second round vote on May 6, according to a raft of opinion polls published this week.
The latest, carried out this week by CSA and released late Wednesday, said 30 percent of voters would pick Sarkozy and 26 percent would go for Hollande. A week ago the poll put Sarkozy at the same level and Hollande at 28 percent.
Four other French polling institutes -- TNS-Sofres, Ifop, OpinionWay and Harris Interactive -- this week all put Sarkozy ahead in the first round, reversing the pole position that Hollande had claimed for months.
They all still predicted Hollande would win the May 6 second round but showed that Sarkozy was narrowing the Socialist's lead.
The CSA survey said that if the vote were held next Sunday, Hollande would win with 53 percent of the vote against Sarkozy's 47 percent.
Some commentators put Hollande's narrowing lead down to the success of Left Front candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, whose popularity has stabilised at around 13 percent in the first round.
"The Melenchon pressure" said Thursday's front-page headline of left-wing daily Liberation, while the pro-Sarkozy Le Figaro headlined "Melenchon toughens his tone against Hollande."
Melenchon's virulent attacks on the rich, the political elite and European austerity measures have struck a chord with many left-wing voters as France struggles with economic crisis and rising unemployment.
The 60-year-old former Socialist minister split with the party in 2008 to found the Left Party and was elected to the European Parliament in 2009.
Melenchon says he will call on his supporters to vote against Sarkozy in the second round but has repeatedly insisted he will not accept a ministerial position if Hollande wins.
Sarkozy may have benefited from a series of killings that shocked France and allowed the right-winger to resume his presidential role as he attended victims' memorials and announced a crackdown on fundamentalism.
A poll by Harris Interactive on Wednesday said 65 percent of French approved of Sarkozy's attitude during the crisis that followed Al-Qaeda militant Mohamed Merah's murder of seven people.
Fifty-nine percent had the same opinion of Hollande.
Mindful that he has not kept many promises regarding the French economy during his mandate, Sarkozy told the Paris-Match weekly that he would be "different" and "not repeat errors one might have made" if re-elected.
Sarkozy, who was seen as hyperactive and too connected to the wealthy and showbusiness elite during his mandate, admitted he had had the attitude of a busy minister, whereas "one should also have distance and solemnity".
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