French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy consolidated his position as the leading Gaullist candidate in next year's presidential elections, as former opponents rallied behind him at a high-profile party meeting.
Pledging to break with the past and urging a "new French model," Sarkozy addressed his closing speech on Sunday to young people, courting a generation that has traditionally voted for the left. He vowed to lower unemployment to 5 percent by 2012, promised reform of the education system and proposed mandatory community service for youths.
"A break is needed," Sarkozy, leader of the governing Union for a Popular Movement, told 6,000 young delegates. "If we are together, united and determined, everything is possible."
Several longtime supporters of President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, Sarkozy's main rivals in recent years, used the three-day conference in Marseille to express support for the interior minister. Among them were Budget Minister Jean-Francois Cope and Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour.
Villepin himself appeared to soften his opposition to Sarkozy, albeit without explicitly endorsing his candidacy.
"Thank you Nicolas!" said Villepin on Friday, the opening day of the meeting. "Nicolas, you are a minister of state who is energetic, strong-willed and courageous. I give you all my gratitude."
The show of unity on the right comes one week after a similar gathering of the opposition Socialist Party was overshadowed by divisive squabbling among half a dozen potential candidates, several of whom stepped up their attacks on Segolene Royal, the front-runner in opinion polls on the left.
For three years the rivalry between Sarkozy on one side and Chirac and his protege Villepin on the other dominated the headlines. But eight months ahead of the presidential poll, Sarkozy appears to have outdistanced them both.
While Chirac has not ruled out running for a third term, and Villepin has seen his popularity recover somewhat with falling jobless figures, neither of the two comes close to Sarkozy in opinion polls.
"For the moment there is no rival on the horizon for Sarkozy," said Emmanuel Riviere, head of political studies at the TNS Sofres polling institute.
The two-round election is scheduled to take place in late April and early May.
If Sarkozy has so far succeeded in fending off his main rivals on the right, winning against the Socialist Party will be harder, Riviere said.
After courting voters on the right with a tough line on immigration and law and order, Sarkozy now appears to be trying to soften his image in a bid to win votes in the center.
On Sunday, he sought to woo young voters by proposing to create interest-free loans for students who want to set up a business, as well as special education savings accounts. He appeared to criticize a flexible work contract the government introduced a year ago, which allows small firms to fire employees without justification during the first two years after they are hired.
"I want society to allow you to become adults, adults like others," Sarkozy said. "Not adults who are put to the test for two years and can be fired without explanation."
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