PARIS: The frontrunners in France's presidential race, right-wing incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist challenger Francois Hollande, summoned supporters to huge rallies Sunday, a week from polling day.
The duel in the Paris streets Sarkozy was to occupy the iconic Place de la Concorde in the heart of the city and Hollande a square outside the Chateau de Vincennes in the east came as the opposition gained in confidence.
"To imagine an election already won would be a political, even a moral mistake. Nevertheless, I admit, I am ready to govern France," Hollande declared, in a interview with the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.
His buoyant mood in the final straight was supported by the latest opinion polls, which all still predict a close first-round on April 22 followed by a comfortable victory for Hollande in a May 6 run-off against Sarkozy.
Another champion of the left, Communist-backed firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon had gathered huge crowds on Saturday on the beachfront in the southern city of Marseille, most of who are likely to vote for Hollande in the second round.
Sarkozy and Hollande both hoped to gather tens of thousands of their own supporters and the attention of television cameras to launch the final week of campaigning before the first round on a triumphant note.
Observers were keen to see who could draw the biggest or most fervent crowds, but nothing in the race has yet shifted the underlying polling data: Sarkozy appears to be on course for a clear defeat after one term.
A cautious campaigner, Hollande has not generated much passion in his own camp, but insisted: "I do not want to be president by default. The country is not waiting for a president to leave, but for a new one to arrive."
He has invited popular rock bands to entertain the crowds at his festival like rally, in a leafy area of eastern Paris close to the working-class districts which he will have to mobilise to ensure a majority.
Sarkozy's camp mocked the line-up, joking that entertainment was being laid on because the Socialists feared that no-one would turn up to hear Hollande's stump speech, and promised a more traditional rally of their own.
Place de la Concorde, just across the River Seine from the National Assembly and lying between the Champs Elysees and the Louvre Palace, was the scene of Sarkozy's triumphant victory rally in 2007.
Police have said they will not communicate their estimates for turnout, but Sarkozy was banking on large numbers to support his theory that the polls are failing to take into account a "silent majority" on the right.
"Tomorrow, I'm going to bring together many, many, many of the French. I can feel mobilisation. I can feel the popular will," he declared on Saturday.
"I want tomorrow to address the silent France. Those who don't smash up bus shelters. Those who just want to be allowed to work. To those who love their families, the land. Those who love their country," he said.
The final week of campaigning will also be the last chance for the trailing candidates to make their mark before they are eliminated.
Melenchon has been the surprise package of the campaign and his Left Front party is battling Marine Le Pen's anti-immigrant, anti-EU, far-right National Front for the third place spot.
Recent polls have both at between 13% and 17%, some giving Melenchon the advantage, some Le Pen, despite the latter's claim that she will win double the hard-left's score.