French president Nicolas Sarkozy said today he would fight with everything he has to win a second term but will bow out of politics if he loses an April-May election.
Mr Sarkozy, who is trailing Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in opinion polls six weeks before the first round of voting, claimed Mr Hollande's lack of ministerial or international experience was a problem at a time of economic turmoil.
"I worry when I look at the Socialist candidate's programme... and I worry about this dearth of experience in such a troubled period. But if the French people do not put their faith in me, do you really think I would carry on in politics? The answer is no," Mr Sarkozy told RMC radio.
Mr Hollande widened his lead slightly this week, advancing 2 points to 30 per cent support for the April 22 first round, while Mr Sarkozy gained only 1 point to 28 per cent. The survey, by pollster CSA, saw Mr Hollande beating Mr Sarkozy by 56 per cent to 44 per cent in the May 6 run-off.
"I will fight with all my strength to win your confidence, to protect and lead you and build a strong France, but if that is not your choice I will bow out, that's the way it is, and I will have had a great life in politics," he said.
Mr Sarkozy said on a three-hour televised debate on Tuesday that he was not discouraged by his weak poll scores and that one his characteristics is that he never gives up.
But French media are reporting that his campaign team is starting to worry that Mr Sarkozy's efforts to overcome a widespread dislike of his personal style and anger over three years of economic gloom are not working.
Campaign spokeswoman Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet - who was lambasted as out of touch after she was unable to tell a radio presenter the price of a Paris metro ticket - lamented this week that the race had descended into distracting polemic.
Presidential spokesman Frank Louvrier has been quoted by the daily Les Echos as saying that if Mr Sarkozy's camp did not keep the focus squarely on debating ideas they were "sure to lose".
Mr Sarkozy launched his campaign in mid-February, several weeks after Mr Hollande, and has opted for a strategy of unveiling his ideas - such as a new minimum tax on company profits, making the unemployed sign up to training to get their benefits and holding policy referendums - week by week.
After a strong start that saw him trim the gap with Mr Hollande by a few points, he suffered setbacks in his second week, including being jostled by left-wing militants while out on the campaign trail, and has now lost his initial bounce.
Meanwhile, Mr Hollande has consolidated his lead position after announcing a surprise 75 per cent tax rate on annual income above €1 million, a move nearly two in three voters support.
On Thursday's radio show, Sarkozy proposed a new household fund for women abandoned by fathers of their children, a new renovation programme for city suburbs and said he would cut the number of legislators by 10 to 15 per cent to trim public spending.
Mr Sarkozy, whose main focus is on structural reform and tighter immigration rules, is expected to give his first real campaign overview at a big campaign rally on Sunday in the Paris suburb of Villepinte.
Reuters