France's third candidate

February 22, 2007

The duel between Socialist Segolene Royal and rightwinger Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency is getting a jolt from a third candidate whose platform rejects the left-right divide. Centrist Francois Bayrou of the Union for French Democracy (UDF) is steadily climbing in polls, gaining up to 14 percent of votes and outshining far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the campaign for the April-May vote. A portrait