An angry anti-establishment mood swept across France as voters in the first round of the presidential election delivered President Nicolas Sarkozy a distant second-place result and gave the extreme right-wing Marine Le Pen an unprecedented 20 per cent of the vote for third place. Mr. Sarkozy’s main challenger, Socialist François Hollande, led a strong showing of 28.4 per cent, providing Mr. Sarkozy with a margin that will hard to beat in two weeks when they face off in the final vote. Preliminary results as the polls closed on Sunday night showed Mr. Sarkozy receiving a very disappointing 25.5 per cent of the vote, down from the substantial 31.2 per cent first-round result that helped bring him to victory five years ago. These results will have both candidates facing each other for a second-round showdown on May 6, and projections show that Mr. Hollande, whose Socialists have not been in power for 17 years, is strongly positioned to win. If that happens, France will become one of the few major countries in Europe without a conservative leader.
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