Sarkozy, Juppe top bill in French presidential TV debate

Widely tipped to be France’s next president, the cool-headed 71-year-old Alain Juppe, is set to lock horns Thursday in a televised debate with ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy for the right-wing nomination.
While there are seven candidates at the debate, Juppe’s biggest rival is without doubt Sarkozy, 61, the “bling-bling” former president accused of tapping into fears about immigration and Islam to win back the keys to the Elysee Palace.
The debate is the first of three ahead of a primary widely seen as the main battle for the presidency, with unemployment, terrorism and immigration uppermost in the minds of voters, according to recent polls.
Terror fears have been fuelled by a string of jihadist attacks that have killed over 230 people in France in the past two years.
The stakes could not be higher, as whoever emerges victorious from the conservatives’ two-round November 20-27 contest is forecast to meet — and defeat — far-right leader Marine Le Pen of the National Front (FN) in the second round of the election in May.
The brash Sarkozy is waging an uphill fight for a return to the office he held from 2007 to 2012, with Le Pen accusing him of “aping” her proposals in efforts to catch up with the mild-mannered Juppe in voter surveys.
Polls show Juppe, the long-time mayor of Bordeaux, enjoying a lead of between eight and 14 percentage points over his rival, with the five other candidates trailing behind.
Sarkozy’s populist proposals in recent days have included referendums on tightening immigration and jailing suspected Islamist radicals.
Juppe, currently France’s most popular politician, is instead positioning himself as a unifier and a moderate.
Thursday’s debate is the first of three before the first round of the primary on November 20. The two top vote-getters will then debate one-on-one before the November 27 run-off.
With a format allowing no more than one minute at a time for each of the candidates, Thursday’s debate is unlikely to be as gloves-off as the brawls seen between US presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Two in five respondents told an Oxoda opinion poll that unemployment was the top issue they want discussed, followed by terrorism and immigration.
French unemployment rose sharply in August, reaching its highest level in years partly as a result of a post-attacks dip in tourism.
Joblessness is a main cause of Socialist President Francois Hollande’s deep unpopularity, especially after he made reducing unemployment one of his key conditions for seeking a second term — which he seems increasingly unlikely to do.
US-style primaries are a relatively new phenomenon in France.
The ruling Socialists were the first to experiment with the process in 2011, nominating Hollande who went on to defeat the divisive Sarkozy in elections the following year.
Four years later the Socialists are in disarray.
Hollande, who is battling historically low ratings for a post-war president, has yet to announce whether he will stand for re-election.
Irrespective of his decision, polls already show the Socialists being the big losers of the election.
Le Pen, riding high with her nationalist, anti-migrant platform, is expected to place first or second in the first round of voting on April 23.
The final run-off is expected to pit her against either Juppe or Sarkozy, with the conservative candidate forecast to win the keys to the Elysee Palace.
With the Socialists given little to no chance of retaining the presidency, some frustrated leftist voters have said they plan to take part in the conservative primary.
“My main motivation is to block Nicolas Sarkozy,” said a left-leaning sports teacher who plans to take advantage of loose participation rules to cast a vote for Juppe.
Both right-wing frontrunners have been tarnished by scandal, though Sarkozy’s are more recent and more numerous.
The ex-president is under investigation for alleged influence-peddling and suspected illegal funding of his failed 2012 election campaign.
Juppe too was involved in a party finance scandal, for which he was convicted in 2004.
Gael Sliman of the Odoxa pollsters told AFP the challenge for Sarkozy, as the outsider, was “not to go overboard” during the debate.
Juppe, on the other hand, “should put himself above the fray, without coming across as arrogant.”