The two remaining candidates for the French Socialist Party’s presidential nomination fought a tense but inconclusive final televised debate, leaving themselves locked in a tight race.
While the exchange remained civil, it was terse and Martine Aubry attacked Francois Hollande’s lack of ministerial experience and implied that he was not up to the challenge of taking on and defeating President Nicolas Sarkozy.
But Mr Hollande kept his cool, defended his record as a campaigner and said he would be able to represent a new generation and renew French public life.
“Faced with the hard right, faced with a tenacious crisis, we need a strong left ... to call the banks to order, to switch to a green economy and get us out of nuclear power,” Ms Aubry declared in the opening exchanges.
“I don’t want a hard left,” retorted Hollande, promising to rally voters. “We’re just coming out of five years of a brutal Presidency. Should we have a divisive candidacy? I don’t want that. We need a solid left.”
Ms Aubry, the 61-year-old mayor of the northern city of Lille, is a former labour minister who introduced France’s 35-hour week.
Mr Hollande, 57, is former party leader and lawmaker who has never held high office, but is riding high in the polls.
He won the first round of the primary vote on Sunday with 39 per cent, and has been endorsed by three of the four defeated candidates, including his former partner, the defeated 2007 presidential candidate Segolene Royal.
Ms Aubry came in second on 31 per cent, but is expected to pick up many of the votes cast for the third place challenger Arnaud Montebourg, who won a surprise 17 per cent on a platform of protectionism and market regulation.
The journalists moderating the debate attempted to draw out policy differences between the two, but they were remarkably similar in their responses to France’s economic crisis and social challenges.
The clear tensions beneath the surface came closer the surface when issues of leadership style and experience came up, and Ms Aubry struck some blows without really knocking Mr Hollande off his rhythm.
“A President should have a younger Prime Minister, to prepare the future,” she said. “I’m candidate for the presidency, you need great experience.”
“I’m younger than Martine,” Mr Hollande shot back, nettled by her repeated digs at his lack of a ministerial record. “The choice of a Prime Minister should be made during the presidential campaign. It’s not a deal you make.”
Both agreed they would campaign for the other to ensure that the left beats Mr Sarkozy’s centre-right camp, but there was no sign of any affection between the two, and Ms Aubry at times appeared to lecture Mr Hollande.
They clashed inconclusively over the figures for Mr Hollande’s plan to recruit 60,000 teachers, but for the most part it was a contest to appear who could be the most credible proponent of the Socialists’ agreed platform.
The run-off takes place at 10,000 polling stations across France on Sunday and stakes are high. Opinion polls suggest either leading Socialist candidate would beat Mr Sarkozy in next April’s presidential election.
And the primary itself – the first time a French party has held a US-style open vote to choose a standard bearer – has boosted the left, mobilising their base, dominating media coverage and drawing 2.7 million to the polls.