Box 1. Who's who
From the following article:
French election: The candidates respond
Nature 446, 847-850(19 April 2007)
doi:10.1038/446847a
Nicolas Sarkozy is head of the right-of-centre UMP party, which was founded by outgoing president Jacques Chirac. He has served as both finance minister and minister of the interior.
Ségolène Royal is the Socialist Party candidate. A member of the National Assembly, she is president of the Poitou-Charentes region in the west of France.
François Bayrou is the head of a small centrist party, the UDF. He was minister for education in two right-wing governments during the 1990s, and has been a member of the European Parliament.
There are also nine other candidates, including Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front, Dominique Voynet of the Greens, Olivier Besancenot of the Revolutionary Communists, Philippe de Villiers of the traditionalist and eurosceptic Movement for France, and anti-globalization campaigner José Bové.
The two candidates who get the most votes in the first round of the elections, which in metropolitan France will be held on 22 April, will proceed to a run-off election on the first weekend in May.