Sarkozy, Royal set for election showdown

By Crispian Balmer

PARIS (Reuters) - Conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy secured a commanding lead in the opening round of France's presidential election on Sunday and will meet Socialist rival Segolene Royal in a run-off on May 6.

The former interior minister, who promises to reward hard work and wage war on crime, looked well placed to win the decisive vote after chalking up the highest first-round score for a rightist presidential hopeful since 1969.

With almost all the ballots counted, Sarkozy was credited with 30.7 percent of the vote while Royal was on 25.17 percent.

Sunday's turnout was a huge 84.5 percent, attesting to the enormous interest the election has generated, with France's volatile voters reversing a previous trend and shunning the political extremes in favor of mainstream parties.

Centrist Francois Bayrou came third with 18.4 percent and far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who stunned France by coming second in the 2002 election, finished fourth on 11 percent -- his lowest score in his last three attempts at the presidency.

As expected, none of the 12 presidential candidates won an absolute majority, opening the way for the run-off.

Four polls carried out late Sunday put Sarkozy at between 52-54 percent in the second round showdown, and Royal, seeking to become France's first woman president, on 46-48 percent.

Sarkozy's biggest problem as he heads into the second round is his reputation as an authoritarian bully, with rivals turning the first round into a referendum on his personality and accusing him of courting the hard-right vote.

FRENCH DREAM

In a speech to cheering supporters after polling stations closed, a relaxed, happy-looking Sarkozy immediately tried to soften his image and reached out to the political centre.

"The France I dream of is a France which leaves no-one behind, a France which is like a family, where the weakest, the most vulnerable, the most fragile have the right to as much love, as much respect and as much attention as the strongest," he said.

Jubilant Socialist fans at their party headquarters waved red roses at news Royal had made it through to the run-off, relieved there was no repeat of the nightmare of 2002, when Le Pen knocked their candidate out of the race.

"There are many of us today ... who don't want a France dominated by the law of the strongest and most brutal and blocked in by the power of money where power in concentrated in the hands of always the same few people," Royal told supporters.

Leading the field in the first round does not guarantee ultimate success. Twice in the last five elections, in 1974 and 1995, the first-round winner lost the run-off.

But Royal, who has been dogged by questions about her competence, faces a daunting challenge.