Trailing her Socialist rival in the polls, France’s main conservative candidate to become mayor of Paris addressed a subdued meeting in the city’s 14th arrondissement (district) on Thursday, where she is also standing to become mayor, reports FRANCE 24.
With three days to go before nationwide local elections, the odds are stacked against Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, known in France by her initials NKM.
Environment minister under conservative former president Nicolas Sarkozy, NKM, 40, is the youthful, attractive and vigorous face of France’s conservative opposition UMP party, which saw her as its best hope to recapture the French capital after 13 years of Socialist rule.
But she is lagging behind her Socialist rival Anne Hidalgo, deputy to outgoing Paris mayor Betrand Delanoë since 2001, for Paris’ top job.
An IFOP poll for weekly newspaper Journal du Dimanche on Thursday gave 54-year-old Hidalgo a four-point lead in overall popular support in the inevitable second round on March 30 (neither is tipped to secure an outright victory on Sunday).
And in Paris’ 14th arrondissement the poll results are even worse, with NKM trailing a whole 10 points behind little-known Socialist candidate Carine Petit, according to a CSA survey.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.