Europeans favour Royal for French president

Europeans from the four biggest EU member states largely favour Socialist candidate Segolene Royal to become the next French president, but her centre-right competitor Nicolas Sarkozy continues to lead the polls in France.

Sixteen percent of German, British, Italian and Spanish respondents would like to see the left-leaning Ms Royal take over from outgoing French president Jacques Chirac while just 7 percent would opt for Mr Sarkozy, according to a Harris poll for Financial Times publis...