The televised duel was very sharp, but it ended "without a knockout", according to observers. It was an exchange of blows between two men who faced each other on a range of issues, from the economy to immigration, and even went so far as to discuss what the style of the French president should be.
This morning, conservative Sarkozy, who accused his opponent of shameless lies in the debate, said that "elections have never been so uncertain".
"Sunday's elections carry a series of unknowns. I am fully convinced that nothing has been decided yet, nothing has been achieved, nor won," Sarkozy told France Inter radio.
The two candidates immediately started to run the last meters of the election race, so after interviews for radio and television, Nicolas Sarkozy went to a meeting in Toulon, and Francois Hollande went to Toulouse.
Most of the editorials of the daily newspaper wrote today that the TV duel did not cause any electoral upheaval.
Hollande, who polls predict will win with 53 to 54 percent of the vote, "...scored several goals and showed that he has presidential strength...", the media write. The left has already declared him the winner, so the daily "La Liberation" wrote: "Holland presided over the debate."
The president of the Socialist Party, Martin Aubrey, expressed such an assessment.
"Those who didn't know him could see how much presidential stuff he was to them," Aubrey said.
The right-wing daily "Le Figaro", close to the current president, believes in the victory of Sarkozy.
"Sarkozy backed Hollande into a corner, Hollande staggered and immediately compensated for it with a certain aggressiveness, he evaluated Francois Cope and accused Hollande of "intellectualizing".
Interior Minister Claude Gent accused Hollande of "arrogance" but admitted he was "very combative".
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen silently urged her voters not to vote for either of the two candidates who entered the second round.
However, observers and the media are convinced that her and similar advice from other candidates will not have a decisive influence on the outcome of the election, in which, according to polls, Hollande will triumph.
The televised confrontation was watched by 17,79 million viewers on seven television channels. On Sunday, 45 million voters were called to the polls to choose the French president.
Francois Hollande's foreign policy
Regardless of who wins the second round of the French presidential election on Sunday, May 6, his decisions will be significant for, among other things, Iran's nuclear program, repression in Syria, and the fight against terrorism and piracy in Africa.
Among Hollande's foreign policy priorities is the European debt crisis, but if he wins, one of the first things he could do is to tell US President Barack Obama that France will speed up the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, according to the AP agency.
Regardless of who wins the second round of the French presidential election on Sunday, May 6, his decisions will be significant for, among other things, Iran's nuclear program, repression in Syria, and the fight against terrorism and piracy in Africa.
The current conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been trailing Hollande in the polls for months, is considered the most outspoken pro-American leader of France in the last 50 years - he sided with Washington on Iran and Syria, increased the number of French soldiers in Afghanistan and played a major role in the overthrow of the regime Muammar Gaddafi.
Hollande could become less "in the mood" to intervene abroad militarily or diplomatically, which will affect both France's allies and enemies.
Foreign policy beyond Europe occupies only four of the 60 points of Hollande's election platform. While his team has advisers on issues of gender equality, French overseas territories or sports, the leftist candidate does not have a chief adviser on foreign policy.
Hollande's associates say that his biggest foreign policy priority is the revival of the European economy and say that his position will be more comprehensive than Sarkozy's.
François Hollande (57) is best known for being the head of the French Socialist Party for 11 years. The question remains how they will cope with strong and experienced leaders like the next president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, or in the European Union.
France, as a nuclear power and one of the world's largest economies, is a significant factor in international politics, and has a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and, after the US, the largest number of embassies and consular departments in the world.
It is not excluded that Sarkozy could still win a second term, but if the polls turn out to be correct, Hollande will enter the Elysée Palace no later than May 16, and as far as foreign policy is concerned, it will be on-the-job training, the agency estimates. AP.
Hollande said that on his first trip abroad, he will have a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in order to highlight Franco-German relations, the foundation of the European Union. The meeting could be tense, since the chancellor openly supported Sarkozy, while Hollande criticized her solutions to the problem of the European economy with harsh austerity measures.
The next thing is a trip to the USA to participate in the Group of Eight summit at Camp David on May 18 and 19, where he is supposed to meet with Obama, and then the NATO summit in Chicago.
Hollande said that he has already started detailed preparations for the summit in Chicago, primarily for the disputed issues of the missile shield and Afghanistan.
Sarkozy said France would withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan by 2013, a year ahead of the Alliance's plans, and Hollande announced he would formally ask NATO to return 3.600 French troops a year earlier.
On the other hand, Hollande, as a moderate leftist, shares ideological views with Obama regarding the pressures on China to ease the control of its currency or the need for measures to stimulate the growth of the world economy.
"Although we have several differences in approach regarding NATO or Afghanistan, we are aware that we are friends and, therefore, partners," Hollande said at a press conference, adding that the current US government has taken useful positions on many issues.
Hollande also requested that Sarkozy's decision to return France under NATO military command, which he made in 2009, be reconsidered.
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