- Head's 'good night at office' after century seals win over England
- Dubois seeks legitimacy with Joshua scalp
- Rate cut could lift consumer spirits before US elections
- Last-gasp Gimenez strike sends Atletico past Leipzig
- Barca stumble at Monaco after early red card
- Raya heroics save Arsenal in Champions League opener at Atalanta
- Cathay Airbus engine fire linked to cleaning: EU regulator
- Guardians beat Twins to secure MLB playoff berth
- Jihadist attack in Mali capital killed more than 70: security sources
- Alonso hails 'efficient' Leverkusen after Feyenoord rout
- Head's hundred seals Australia win over England in 1st ODI
- Ex-Man United striker Anthony Martial joins AEK Athens
- NFL unbeatens meet as Texans visit Vikings, Steelers host Chargers
- Head's hundred seals Australia win over England in 1st ODI after Labuschagne strikes
- Dream debut for Wirtz as Leverkusen thump dire Feyenoord
- Myanmar flood death toll climbs to 293: state media
- Israel army says West Bank air strike kills 4 militants
- LIV golfers get green light for US Ryder Cup team, PGA Championship
- US accuses social media giants of 'vast surveillance'
- Ten Hag to bed Hojlund, Mount in carefully when they return for Man Utd
- Breaking bad as McIlroy endures 'weird' day
- EU chief announces $11 bn for nations hit by 'heartbreaking' floods
- Spanish PM, Palestinian leader urge Mideast de-escalation
- New study reinforces theory Covid emerged at Chinese market
- World Bank boosts climate financing by 10 percent
- Bagnaia eyeing summit on home ground in 100th MotoGP
- 'Something was wrong', defendant in French mass rape tells court
- Hezbollah chief admits 'unprecedented' blow in device blasts
- Sales of US existing homes slip slightly in August
- Fear, panic haunt Lebanese after devices explode
- Labuschagne sparks Australia fightback in England ODI opener
- S.Africa's HIV research power couple says fight goes on
- Why is Israel focusing on border with Lebanon?
- Mpox vaccines administered in Rwanda, first in Africa
- US Fed rate cut is 'very positive sign' for economy: Yellen
- Unknown Mozart string trio discovered in Germany
- 'Are we five-year-olds?' F1 drivers won't mind their language
- Brazil judge orders X to reimpose block or face hefty fine
- Munich to rename stadium street after Beckenbauer
- Champions Italy to face Argentina in Davis Cup Final 8
- The winding, fitful path to weight loss drug Ozempic
- Italians defeat American Magic to reach Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Norris has 'nothing to lose' as he hunts Verstappen in Singapore
- Kyiv 'outraged' at Swiss showing of Russian war film
- French city renames Abbe Pierre square after abuse claims
- Footballer charged after huge cannabis seizure at UK airport
- Vatican recognises Medjugorje shrine, but not Virgin's messages
- Israel bombs Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon after wave of deadly blasts
- Bank of England freezes rate after jumbo US cut
- Playing Nadal is 'kind of a nightmare', says Alcaraz
Defections sap rightwing hopeful in French presidential race
The conservative right-wing challenger to Emmanuel Macron in the looming French presidential vote grappled Friday with a wave of defections, while hoping former president Nicolas Sarkozy would finally offer his full-throated support.
Valerie Pecresse, whose poll numbers have stagnated since winning the Republicains primary in December, suffered the high-profile desertions just days ahead of her inaugural campaign rally.
Her team is hoping the event in Paris on Sunday will inject fresh momentum into Pecresse's bid, revealing a more personal side to Sarkozy's former budget minister and now president of the greater Paris region.
On Friday, Pecresse finally met with Sarkozy for over an hour to discuss a campaign on which he has remained noticeably silent, at least in public.
"It was a conversation among friends, frank and warm," a smiling Pecresse told a scrum of journalists after the meeting, adding that she was "very happy with the meeting".
"It was very useful for me to have the advice of a former president," she said, while declining to say if she would indeed have his backing.
- 'Inward-looking?' -
Several former aides of the popular former president, however, have already jumped ship, saying they would not support their party's candidate.
On Wednesday, Eric Woerth, a Republicains heavyweight and Pecresse's former colleague in Sarkozy's cabinet, surprised loyalists by announcing he would throw his weight behind the incumbent president Macron.
"I don't agree with the party's message" of a France that is "nostalgic and inward-looking," he told the Le Parisien daily -- reportedly without even warning Pecresse ahead of time.
The Republicains mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart, also close to Sarkozy, followed suit Thursday by saying Macron had been "attentive" to her coastal city's struggle to cope with migrants trying to reach Britain by sea.
And on Friday, another former Sarkozy minister, Nora Berra, told BFM television she would not support Pecresse.
Sarkozy has remained a fixture of the French right despite a series of legal convictions since failing to win his re-election bid in 2012.
His support is considered crucial for ensuring the Republicains base rallies behind Pecresse, who accuses Macron of being too weak on crime and immigration and simply "tells everyone what they want to hear".
But French daily Le Figaro reported Thursday that in private, Sarkozy has criticised Pecresse's campaign choices -- not least her choice of Paris for her first major rally -- and said "Valerie is all over the place" and "non-existent".
He is not expected to attend her rally at the Zenith concert hall on Sunday.
- 'Zemmour bounces back' -
Macron remains comfortably ahead at 23 to 25 percent in opinion polls, and is widely expected to finish on top in the first round of voting on April 10.
Another headache for Pecresse is that the upstart far-right candidate, the former TV pundit Eric Zemmour, is holding up in the polls and remains in contention to make it to the second round of voting.
Zemmour's views on French history and immigration, expressed with the clarity of someone who spent years as a commentator on prime time television, often chime with the hard right in Pecresse's own party.
An Ipsos-Sopra Steria poll of 12,500 people published Friday put Pecresse at 15.5 percent, just ahead of far-right contender Marine Le Pen at 15 percent, while Macron stood at 24 percent.
Zemmour, whose campaign late last year appeared on the brink after a series of mishaps, climbed up 1.5 points in the polls to 14.5 percent.
Analysts say the presidential vote will almost certainly boil down to a contest on the right, with no leftwing candidate currently polling in double-digits.
Y.Bouchard--BTB