French Toast: How Sarkozy Found Himself on the Verge of Presidential Defeat

Xavier Leoty / AFP / Getty Images

Rough ride Sarkozy in La Rochelle, western France on February 21, 2012

During a campaign visit to the city of Bayonne on March 1, French President Nicolas 
 Sarkozy suddenly found himself engulfed by a crowd of locals he thought had come to cheer him.

Instead, they shouted insults at him and forced him to seek refuge in a local bar. A week later, another hostile horde jeered Sarkozy at a stop in the town of St.-Just-St.-Rambert in the center of the country. As he heads toward the first round of voting on April 22, this is not at all how France's President hoped his re-election bid...

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