French parliamentary elections French presidential elections often revolve around the revolutionary trinity of liberty, equality and fraternity. In the first round, the rightwing candidate champions liberty while the leftwing candidate promotes equality. Then, in the second round, fraternity becomes the battleground.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the flagbearer for the neo-Gaullist right, has certainly conformed to this historic pattern. At least in economic terms, he has been pleading the cause of greater liberty. The centrepiece of his campaign has been to liberate the entrepreneurial spirit of the French people by rewarding individual initiative and hard work.
