Right-wing favourite may prove to be divisive figure

FRANCE: As council workers begin taking down election posters this morning, Nicolas Sarkozy will no doubt be particularly keen…

FRANCE:As council workers begin taking down election posters this morning, Nicolas Sarkozy will no doubt be particularly keen on the removal of campaign pictures of him that have been adorned with Hitler moustaches and the word "fascist".

At his final rally last week, he talked about "the writing on the wall", saying youths must stop hating France. But in suburbs such as Bondy, near Paris, where riots raged in 2005, it is not France but Mr Sarkozy who is the target of spray cans. Yesterday outside Bondy town hall, a poster of Mr Sarkozy had its eyes gouged out and was scrawled with: "He dirties everything, even our dreams."

Well-dressed pensioners from the smart streets of semi-detached houses that nudge up against the high-rises tutted as they arrived to vote for the right-wing favourite, who has promised a new "French dream" of success and reward for hard work.

"I'm voting for Mr Sarkozy to put an end to the delinquency and stop crime in this country," said one woman accompanied by a lap-dog with a bow in its hair.

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"These elderly people see you're black and think you're a criminal," said Arnaud Jardel (23) who works for a water company and voted for Segolene Royal.

"There are two Frances. The France of the high-rise estates is in the s**t and it won't be easy to fix. There's so much discrimination and unemployment that kids are completely demotivated. Sarkozy's language about cleaning up the place with a powerhose didn't help. Rioting could flare up again at any minute round here. If he wins, it will explode."

Having witnessed the rioting at close range in 2005, he said he was "going home early to get well out of the way". More than 3,000 police were on stand-by last night in Paris and its rundown suburban estates.

As France's interior minister and "top cop" during the riots, Mr Sarkozy was seen by young people on the estates as enemy number one. They were offended by his lack of sensitivity over the incident that sparked the riots: the death of two teenagers electrocuted while hiding from police in a power substation. In the Seine-Saint-Denis region northeast of Paris, the centre of the 2005 rioting, authorities had yesterday refused all police requests for a day off. Elsewhere, around 6,000 police were on alert.

At another Bondy polling station, many felt it was the most important election for years in a country which for 25 years has known only two presidents, Francois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, now 74. By 5pm the turnout was over 75 per cent - the highest at that stage of a presidential run-off since 1965.

Sadia Ben-Farh (36) a mother of three, who had voted for Ms Royal, said the next few days would be difficult if Mr Sarkozy won. "That's it, cars will go up in smoke, the estates will flip and it will be the start of a vicious circle because Mr Sarkozy will then be able to say to the nation, 'I told you so, these areas are out of control.' " - ( Guardian service)