Sarkozy Has Pushed Hard to Realize Dream

French conservative presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy addresses supporters at the Gaveau concert hall in Paris, Sunday, April 22, 2007, after the closure of the polling stations for the first round of the presidential election. Pollsters' projections showed conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal advancing Sunday to a runoff for the French presidency, offering a stark choice of left or right for a nation eager for new direction. (AP/Photo/Christophe Ena) (Christophe Ena - AP)

PARIS -- Nicolas Sarkozy has struck fear and anger in the hearts of many in his drive to realize his lifelong dream of becoming president.

As interior minister, Sarkozy became enemy No. 1 for many blacks and Arabs after calling young delinquents in those neighborhoods "scum" _ a term that continues to dog him politically.

His emotional tough talk has raised questions about how he would lead a country proud of its skill at cool-headed diplomacy. He is the candidate of President Jacques Chirac's conservative party, but is notably more pro-American.

In a traditional left-right clash, Sarkozy will face Socialist Segolene Royal in the decisive May 6 runoff.

Sarkozy, 52, grew up in Paris, the son of a Hungarian immigrant. He has acknowledged having an unhappy childhood growing up in a broken home and being an unremarkable student, but he says he drew motivation from feeling like an outsider with a foreign-sounding name.

He dreamed of the presidency as a long-haired youth, and eventually became a lawyer.

A skilled orator and media-savvy political operator, Sarkozy preaches a by-the-bootstraps optimism that has resonated for millions who want to pull France out of its economic gloom.

Sarkozy wants to cut taxes and payroll fees, and make it easier for companies to hire and fire employees. He would all but scrap France's 35-hour work week law, saying people should be freer to work as hard as they want to.

Yet he's no ruthless reformer. He has already eased back from his tax-cut timetable, and isn't afraid of intervening in the economy. As finance minister, he defended French engineering company Alstom from takeover by Germany's Siemens, and he has criticized the European Central Bank.

Yet detractors on the left say Sarkozy is too free-market at a time of widespread fear about job security and unemployment, and the wrong answer for a France still coping with fallout of rioting across poor suburban areas in the fall of 2005.

In the campaign, Sarkozy sought to poach supporters from ultra-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen by calling for the creation of a new Ministry of Immigration and National Identity. He also deported thousands of illegal immigrants and led anti-crime and counterterrorism bills through parliament as interior minister.

Because he is disliked in black and Arab neighborhoods for his invective against troublemakers, Sarkozy has also been one of the few political heavyweights to reach out to minorities. He created a nationwide council of Muslim leaders and proposed a kind of affirmative action and state funding for mosques, ideas that may resurface if he's elected.

Sarkozy has embraced the nickname "Sarko the American" affixed by critics, saying France and the United States share democratic kinship that transcends disagreements like the one over the Iraq war. But he says France is "nobody's vassal," and he opposes Turkey's bid to join the European Union _ which Washington supports.