Presidential election at the forefront of May Day rallies in France

France's presidential race is at the forefront of May Day celebrations onTuesday, with right-wing incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy staging a rally on a day traditionally dominated by unions.

REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

Sarkozy will address a campaign meeting at the Trocadero in Paris to speak about "work values".

And anti-immigrant presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, knocked out in the April 22 first round after scoring nearly a record 18 percent of votes, is to hold her own rally in Paris in memory of far-right icon Joan of Arc.

At the same time, unions will march to the capital's Place de la Bastille, but without Hollande, who will be attending a memorial in central France for former prime minister Pierre Beregovoy who killed himself in 1993.

Instead, Socialist Party secretary Martine Aubry will speak at the mass Bastille rally, while Sarkozy's UMP party hopes that tens of thousands will turn out at the Trocadero meeting.

On Monday he criticised the CGT union leader Bernard Thibault for "betraying the cause of unionism" after Thibault called for a vote against him.

"CGT leaders, notably Mr Thibault, are members of the Communist Party, at least things are clear," said Sarkozy, who says Hollande will be "behind the CGT's red flags" on May Day while he himself addresses "a forest of tricolour flags."

CFDT union leader Francois Chereque said on Monday that it was a mistake for the CGT to have called to vote against Sarkozy, but said he had "never heard such violent words against unions."

The National Front's rally, an annual event, will climax at the Opera in Paris where Marine Le Pen is to address her supporters having achieved a record score for her party just over a year after taking over from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Like her father in 2007, Marine Le Pen is expected to call for her supporters to "save their votes" for parliamentary elections in June.

With campaigning to end on Friday, the sole televised debate between Sarkozy and Hollande on Wednesday is widely perceived as the right-winger's last chance to take votes away from the Socialist.

Government spokeswoman and Budget Minister Valerie Pecresse said the debate
could change things, despite Sarkozy trailing Hollande in opinion polls for months, the latest predicting a Socialist win by 53 to 47 percent.