The two candidates who topped the first round of France's presidential elections today begin campaigning for the second round run-off on May 6th.
Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy led Socialist Ségolène Royal in the first round of the election and must now win over centrist voters if he is to win the election.
Ms Royal and Mr Sarkozy are holding rallies tonight with an eye on voters who deserted the left and right in favor of François Bayrou, who placed third in one of the big surprises of the campaign.
Both candidates had scoffed at Mr Bayrou, saying he would be incapable of forming a government with ministers drawn from left and right, or gaining a parliamentary majority. But with 18.5 per cent of the vote, Mr Bayrou won the support of voters who could hold the key to victory for the two contenders when the French elect a new president in two weeks.
Mr Bayrou's centrist Union for French Democracy has traditionally voted with the right in parliament and has often had ministers in conservative governments. But Mr Bayrou drew leftists as well as conservatives to his camp, and both Mr Sarkozy and Ms Royal need those votes back.
With nearly all votes counted, Mr Sarkozy had 31.1 per cent, followed by M Royal with 25.8 per cent and Mr Bayrou. Turnout was 84.6 per cent - the highest in more than 40 years and just shy of the record set in 1965.
Four opinion polls late yesterday showed Mr Sarkozy, a former interior minister, looked placed to win the run-off and dash Ms Royal's dream of becoming France's first women president.
Mr Sarkozy, aiming to soften the tough image that helped him siphon votes from the far-right, struck a conciliatory tone soon after the polls closed.
"The France I dream of is a France that leaves no one behind, a France which is like a family, where the weakest, the most vulnerable, the most fragile have the right to as much love, as much respect and as much attention as the strongest," he said.
Reaching out to the same centrist voters, Ms Royal sought to stoke concern about Mr Sarkozy by saying she refused "to cultivate fear" and opposed "a France dominated by the law of the strongest or most brutal".