Slums turn power centres in France

Argenteuil, France: It is ironic that Nicolas Sarkozy, the front-runner in France's presidential race, finds himself on the defensive in the immigrant slums that could play a key role in Sunday's first-round election.

As France's top law enforcement official, the hard-charging Sarkozy spent a lot of time in the nation's tense housing projects. As a streetwise descendant of Hungarian and Greek-Jewish immigrants, he has a better instinctive understanding of those areas than most politicians, even some of his critics say.

But just before the riots that shook France in October 2005, Sarkozy paid a nocturnal visit to a grim housing project in this industrial city on the northwest periphery of Paris. When a young mob hurled objects and insults at him, he responded with characteristically tough talk. Ever since, he has been the nemesis of restive street gangs - and the target of political rivals who call him dangerously divisive.

Whether or not the accusation is fair, Sarkozy has largely avoided housing projects during the campaign for fear of new unrest or a politically damaging sound bite.

His opponents have exploited that vulnerability by campaigning in immigrant areas, where registration increased during the last year.

New voters in the traditionally leftist bastions could help determine a tight race in which centre-rightist Sarkozy, Socialist Segolene Royal, centrist Francois Bayrou and far-rightist Jean-Marie Le Pen led a field of 12 candidates in yesterday's voting. A runoff is scheduled for May 6.

"It's true that after the riots of 2005, many young people accepted our appeal," said local Socialist leader Ali Romdhane, a former city council member who led a drive here that registered 7,200 new voters, a 15 per cent increase.

"In a way, Sarkozy helped us. Our slogan was, 'Vote instead of vandalise.' We told the young people that their strength rested in their voter identification card. And they are the ones who are going to make the difference."

But Sarkozy's rivals may be simplifying matters. The 52-year-old has won admirers on France's toughest streets precisely because of his plain-spoken, pugnacious attitude and his crime-fighting record as interior minister, experts say.

"There's a rupture between him and the immigrant youth, but overall the political forces in the banlieues are more balanced than you would think," said a veteran police intelligence official who asked not to be named, using the French term for areas on the urban periphery that typically contain industrial housing projects.

"Sarkozy does well with a population, whether French or North African, that wants security restored in the housing projects. He's responsible for the rupture with the kids, but he also benefits from it."