Nicolas Sarkozy was to stage the first major rally of his improbable re-election bid on Sunday as his former supermodel wife Carla Bruni road-tests an equally improbable down-to-earth makeover. With barely nine weeks to go until the first round of France’s presidential election, Sarkozy was to address a crowd of 10,000 supporters gathered to cheer him on in the rough-and-ready Mediterranean port city of Marseille. And by his side for the first time of the campaign was to be a first lady formerly more associated with Parisian glamour and jet-set resorts, now trying to re-imagine herself as an ordinary young mum and doting spouse. Sarkozy has begun to close the gap between him and opposition Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande — and thus to close the gap between him and a second five-year term in the Elysee — as polling day approaches. But the right-winger remains on course for a humiliating defeat. Sunday’s latest poll by LH2-Yahoo! was in line with all recent surveys in forecasting that Hollande would sweep the May 6 run-off with 55 percent to Sarkozy’s 45. So much was riding on the rally in Parc Chanot, at which he was to give a speech developing his theme of extolling conservative French values and promising a “strong France” through “effort, responsibility and authority.”
