Analysis - French election populism more rhetoric than reality - Reuters Africa

By Catherine Bremer

PARIS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy's threat to raise unilateral barriers to trade and migration unless the European Union toughens its stance has amplified a populist tone in France's caustic election campaign but could rebound against him.

Both Sarkozy and his Socialist challenger, Francois Hollande, are trying to win back voters tempted by the political extremes with simplistic proposals that experts doubt they could or would implement in practice.

Hollande has proposed a 75 percent top income tax rate for millionaires aimed at shoring up his left-wing base.

But the conservative president may have more to lose from threats, spelled out in a speech to a mass campaign rally on Sunday, to pull France out of Europe's open-border zone of passport-free travel and apply protectionist trade measures.

Sarkozy's message was aimed chiefly at supporters of far-right anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen, who stands third in opinion polls, but it conflicts with his efforts to project himself as a European statesman.

Scapegoating Brussels over immigration and globalisation could alienate centrist voters and give the outside world the impression that France is turning inward again, as it did when voters rejected a draft EU constitution in a 2005 referendum.

"It sends off a very negative signal," Thomas Klau at the European Council on Foreign Relations said of Sarkozy's gambit.

"He is recycling a political strategy he's used successfully in the past. The fact that this time he's a president in office makes this strategy more problematic, particularly when it comes to questioning the functioning of important EU policies."   Continued...