French presidential election going largely unnoticed in the world

Feb 23, 2007, 10:27 GMT

Paris - A majority of people in other Western countries are unfamiliar with the leading candidates for the French presidency, according to a survey published Friday in the International Herald Tribune.

The survey, which was carried out online in six countries by Harris Interactive, found that a whopping 88 per cent of Americans had never heard of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal, centrist Francois Bayrou or right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen, the four leading candidates for this year’s presidential election in France.

The numbers were only slightly better in Britain, where 76 per cent of respondents ticked off the response ’I don’t know any of these candidates,’ though the country is just across the Channel from France.

In Germany, 62 per cent said they were not familiar with any of the four candidates, while the figure was 47 per cent in Spain and 43 per cent for Italy.

For those who did hear of the candidates, Royal was chosen as the presidential candidate ’who would best represent France around the world’ in every country except France, with 30 per cent of Italian respondents choosing her against only 7 per cent for Sarkozy.

However, in France, where it counts, respondents preferred the interior minister by 36 to 21 per cent over Royal.

The survey was carried out between January 31 and February 12 among a total of 6,561 adults, including 5,486 aged 16 and over in France, Germany, Britain, Spain and the United States, and 1,075 aged 18 and over in Italy.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur