BRITISH V. FRENCH:

Sarkozy prepares for a battle Royal (Henry Samuel, 23/04/2007, Daily Telegraph)

The result heralds the promise of a true showdown between an uninhibited Right, offering relatively liberal reforms, and an emphasis on work and meritocracy, and a Left offering a real change in leadership style while seeking to preserve at all costs the generous social model.

Mr Sarkozy said the French "have clearly shown their desire to get to the end of the debate between two ideas of the nation, two projects for society, two value systems, two conceptions of politics".