2007年VOA标准英语-French Presidential Election Heats Up

By Anita Elash
Paris
10 April 2007

The first round in the campaign for a new French president is in its final phase with candidates broadcasting their official campaign messages. Anita Elash reports from Paris.

The 12 candidates in this race have been campaigning for months, but Monday, they started the final, "official" part of the campaign.

Workers put up campaign posters - one million in all - in front of 85,000 polling stations across France. Under strict rules that require that everyone gets equal time at the same time of day, they started broadcasting their recorded campaign messages on national television and radio.

Nicolas Sarkozy in Langeais, near Tours, 10 Apr 2007

Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative candidate who recently left his job as Interior Minister, is hoping to cement his reputation as a decisive politician. "I want to be President, first of all to take action", he said. "Action is the passion of the my life. For 25 years, you have been told that nothing can be done, but fate is not part of my vocabulary."

In her ads, the Socialist¹ party candidate Segolene Royal plays on a maternal² theme in a country that needs some looking after. "You already know me", she said. "I am a mother of four children, I have my feet on the ground. I have a sense of the concrete, and you know I want to achieve concrete results."

These last two weeks of campaigning will be crucial for the frontrunners. The latest polls show that 42 percent of French voters are still undecided.

Sarkozy is leading in the polls, and Royal is in second place. But with so many undecided votes, analysts³ say that another candidate could easily bump either Sarkozy or Royal to make it to the second round of voting.

Francois Bayrou, a horse farmer and historian has made it to third place by proposing a coalition⁴ of the left and right-wing political parties.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front party who surprised everyone by making to the second round of voting in the last election, has also been picking up support in the past few weeks.

1 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

2 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

3 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

4 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。