Top French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, citing democracy but likely thinking politics, made a pitch to ensure that extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen has enough endorsements to run in spring elections.
The conservative Sarkozy, France's interior minister and leader in polls, asked mayors and other elected officials on Monday to give their backing to Le Pen and other candidates lacking the required 500 endorsements to run.
His plea for goodwill in the name of democracy followed a similar call earlier in the day from Sarkozy's party, the governing Union for a Popular Movement, known as the UMP.
Time is pressing and non-mainstream candidates like Le Pen -- who stunned France by making it to the runoffs in the 2002 vote against incumbent President Jacques Chirac -- are voicing fears almost daily that they may not be able to run.
To be a candidate in the two-round vote next month and in May, hopefuls must submit 500 signatures from elected officials in 30 regions by March 16. Le Pen, head of the anti-immigration National Front party, said last week that he was still short by 100.
"I combat the ideas of Mr. Le Pen, but I'll fight so that [extreme-left candidate] Mr. Besancenot, like Mr. Le Pen, can defend them," Sarkozy said on France-3 television. "Democracy must not be confiscated by just a few people."
Le Pen and Besancenot are among a half-dozen potential candidates who risk not appearing on the April 22 first-round ballot.
The latest polls show Le Pen, who at 77 hopes to run for president for a fifth time, with 12 percent to 14 percent of a first-round vote.
Mayors of small towns and villages, saying they have been literally harassed for endorsement signatures from the myriad candidates, have been reluctant to sign on to anyone. Some cite fear of a backlash from their constituents should they help a candidate like Le Pen who has been convicted of racism and anti-Semitism.
"I cannot affirm I will be a candidate," Le Pen said Monday. "Everything depends on the mayors and their courage."
Earlier, UMP spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse, said it is a "democratic necessity" to endorse candidates who are not in the mainstream but have a real following.
"All these candidates who represent a true political family should have the possibility to be present" in the race, she said.
UMP officials suggested that local and regional officials who are not cardholders of any party help them out.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to