French President Nicolas Sarkozy formally announced his candidacy for re-election yesterday, focusing his campaign on rebuilding France's "strength" and on his own "dynamism" to steer his country and Europe out of the crisis.

Sarkozy states that: "France is a shield for every one of us. If France is strong, if it takes the decisions, if it makes the choices that will instal it in this new world … then it will be strong. If France is weak, then the French people will be exposed.’” However, the current polls are not very positive for Sarkozy since the socialist candidate François Hollande would beat Sarkozy by up to 15 points in a 6 May runoff. Despite a disapproval rating of 68%, Sarkozy hopes to present himself as an experienced leader who can drag France out of an economic slump and overcome the eurozone crisis.

But according to current polls, the socialist candidate Hollande would win the presidential elections. Sarkozy and Hollande both say their priority is to restore public finances and whoever wins the elections will have to push through roughly €100 billion of austerity measures in the next five years. But their approaches to reach that goal are very different.

Hollande kicked off his campaign in late January with an economic programme that would raise taxes on banks, big firms and the wealthy to help him reduce the public deficit while pumping more funds into education and state-aided job creation.