French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal stepped up a verbal offensive against her right-wing opponent Nicolas Sarkozy today, calling him a "liar" and asking whether he was fit to govern.
Ms Royal told Mr Sarkozy on Sunday to stop insulting her after the two traded blows over security following a riot at a Paris station, but her remarks today were her strongest yet about the former interior minister.
French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal
"Mr Sarkozy is a liar, and is a liar fit to become president of the republic?" Ms Royal told Canal Plus television.
She was reacting to footage of Mr Sarkozy she said she had not seen before, in which he commented on her use of the word "ignoble" after he suggested that a ministry of the interior and national identity be created.
"What should I say when she said 'ignoble' when I pronounced the word 'national identity'," Mr Sarkozy said yesterday.
Mr Royal, however, said that was a lie as she had never used the word to describe him but was instead reacting to the idea of linking national identity and immigration.
"I never made such remarks. This man, who is prepared to do anything and say anything in this presidential campaign, I think it has to stop," she said.
Opinion polls give Mr Sarkozy the edge over Ms Royal, his closest rival, in the spring election, though the number of undecided voters generally far exceeds the gap between the two candidates.
The two candidates have used increasingly strong language about each other as the April 22nd first-round vote approaches.
After youths clashed with police at one of the biggest train stations in Paris a week ago, Ms Royal said it highlighted the failures of Mr Sarkozy's tough law-and-order stance when he was interior minister.
Mr Sarkozy replied by saying Ms Royal was on the side of "cheats and rioters", a reference to the fact that the riot started when an immigrant from Congo was stopped for using the Metro without a ticket.