While his supporters greeted the exit polls with wild clapping and a rendition of the Marseillaise, Nicolas Sarkozy adopted a more dignified air and immediately set about broadening his appeal to ­voters in the run-off for the French presidency.

The centre-right candidate’s convincing lead, higher than his team had hoped, set the UMP’s well-dressed young activists dancing in the street singing “Sarko president” in front of the party’s headquarters. At the interior ministry too, staff burst into applause as their watched their former minister speak.