Nicolas Sarkozy

As political encores go, former President Nicolas Sarkozy didn’t quite get the warm embrace from his party that many French had expected in his return to public life on Saturday.

As polls had anticipated, Francois Hollande has been elected French President, winning with 51.9 per cent of the vote after a tense presidential election campaign.

The final round of voting, that will decide the French president for the next five years, takes place Sunday May 6, and if the latest opinion polls are correct, Conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy could lose his job to Socialist Francois Hollande.

Marine Le Pen, the French far-right presidential candidate, said she would not support President Nicolas Sarkozy in his tight bid for reelection, delivering a crushing blow to the president in the last week of the race.

Official results in the first round of French presidential elections on Sunday don’t bode well for incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy. Socialist candidate François Hollande narrowly beat the president with 28.6 percent of the vote compared to Sarkozy’s 27.1 percent.

For the last 18 months, opinion polls in France have been indicating that President Nicholas Sarkozy will likely fail in his bid for re-election this year.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy put a halt to his reelection campaign to condemn the deadly shootings at a Jewish school.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad needs to step down from power after nine months of violence against dissidents and protesters.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to important proposals during an emergency meeting Monday in the French capital.

France strikes over a pension reform bill caused a blockade of oil supplies, prompting a meeting between oil industry executives and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon Friday.

French airlines are bracing for a more strikes as labor unions continue nationwide protests Sarkozy’s pension reform bill.