Europe's key leaders are rooting for the right in France's presidential contest, hoping that Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, as the new French president, will link up with them to reform the EU and reach swift agreement on a new rule book for the union.
Sarkozy has a reputation for protectionism and hostility to the European Commission, and has attacked the European central bank and indulged in electioneering euro-bashing. Nonetheless, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Manuel Barroso, the European commission president, all view him as the best hope for striking a new pact on how to run Europe.
Polls give him a lead of about five percentage points over his Socialist rival, Segolene Royal, in the run-up to next Sunday's vote. More surprising is his clear lead among the European elite, left and right. Officials in Brussels say Europe's key figures on the center-left and center-right agree that a Royal victory next Sunday would be a setback for the prospects of salvaging a slimmed-down EU constitution.
While mercurial and difficult, Sarkozy is expected to move quickly to seal a deal on a new constitution with Blair or British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, and Merkel, who has made the constitutional project the centerpiece of her current EU presidency.
A French member of parliament and aide to Sarkozy, Axel Poniatowski, said, "Sarkozy has already discussed this issue with Blair, Merkel, and [Spanish prime minister] Zapatero."
"Our main partners are aware of what he would do if elected," he said.
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