France:France appears likely to elect the right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy as president tomorrow.
Three opinion polls published yesterday predicted that Mr Sarkozy would win by between 53 and 54.5 per cent over Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal.
Since their televised debate on Wednesday night, not a single opinion poll has showed Ms Royal gaining ground. Only one reported a stable score for her. In others, she lost up to 2½ percentage points.
The socialist candidate's behaviour during the debate, in which she appeared to be aggressive towards a polite, unusually calm Mr Sarkozy, apparently hurt her. In a poll published by Le Figaro, 66 per cent of respondents found Ms Royal sympathique before the debate, only 53 per cent after. Mr Sarkozy's sympathique rating rose from 39 per cent to 43 per cent.
On the last day of the campaign yesterday, Ms Royal said: "My responsibility today is to raise the alarm about the risks of this candidacy and the violence it will unleash in the country.
"Everyone knows it, but no one says so. There is a sort of taboo."
Mr Sarkozy's office denounced Ms Royal's statement as "threats and intimidation".
The mayors of immigrant suburbs provided differing assessments of the danger of unrest following the election. The communist mayor of Montreuil said youths there were "wound up like clocks against Sarkozy".
French police will tomorrow night mobilise as many forces as for New Year's Eve or Bastille Day, traditionally peak times for urban violence. Some 8,000 gendarmes and riot police and 12,000 policemen will be deployed in and around the capital.
Ms Royal also appealed to voters not to be influenced by opinion polls.
"Today is the last battle for truth against all forms of fabrication and lies," she said. "It is the battle of public morality against a certain number of distortions, the battle of the voiceless, of people who live in precarious conditions and with low salaries against a candidate who wants to give even more to those who already have a lot."
Mr Sarkozy travelled to a plateau in the French Alps where the second World War Resistance was active. If he is elected tomorrow, he promised to return every year.
Opinion polls have repeatedly demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of the two candidates. In an IFOP poll published by Le Mondedated today, respondents showed more confidence in Ms Royal on the issues of the environment, school and education, health and social security.
However Mr Sarkozy received a much higher confidence rating on the important questions of crime, the national debt, immigration, Europe, pensions, purchasing power, the 35-hour working week, institutions and unemployment.
Earlier this week, another poll showed that 63 per cent believed Mr Sarkozy would change France a great deal, compared to only 35 per cent for Ms Royal.
In an interview with the economic newspaper Les Échos, François Hollande, the Socialist Party leader and Ms Royal's partner, said it would be necessary to "invent something with all progressive forces" after next month's legislative elections.
"We cannot return to yesterday's formulas," he said. The left's response to near certain defeat seemed late and vague.
"It's not about freezing things in a single party but defining a political line and studying a shared way of life to create a large force," he explained.
Sources close to the failed centrist candidate François Bayrou said he would next week propose the name Democratic Movement for his new party, with a first public rally to be held about May 20th.
Live coverage of the French presidential election can be seen in Ireland on TV5Monde starting at 6.10 pm tomorrow. The French community will gather to watch on a large screen in Frasers pub on O'Connell Street, Dublin.