Sarkozy, Hollande plan duelling rallies as French vote looms

France's Socialist presidential challenger Francois Hollande rode a wave of confidence Friday towards the last weekend before polling day, as he and Nicolas Sarkozy prepared rival Paris rallies. Hollande has seen his lead over the right-wing incumbent narrow slightly in recent weeks, but Sarkozy's late surge has not altered pollsters' predictions, and the left remains on course for victory over the two-round vote. "We're going to win!" Hollande declared on Thursday night at a rally, only to correct himself the next morning when reporters asked about this newfound self-confidence: "We can win. There's your new slogan." Sarkozy is pinning his hopes on what he calls a "silent majority" waiting in the wings, and hopes to see tens of thousands of voters flock to his banner at a massive rally on Sunday in Paris's iconic Place de la Concorde. Not to be outdone, Hollande has summoned his supporters to a parallel event with musical entertainment outside the Chateau de Vincennes, in working-class eastern Paris, to push his main campaign theme: "The time for change is now." Sarkozy's spokeswoman Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet mocked Hollande's event. "Candidate Hollande is staging a concert to make sure he draws a crowd. Is he scared that no one would turn up if he just gave a speech?" she said. "We don't need a concert, it's not 'bread and circuses' for us."  While the Vincennes rally will be a high point, the opposition candidate's campaign has been a slow burning affair, with Hollande stifling his previously jocular character in a bid to project a statesmanlike solemnity. Hollande defended his low-key style in a seven-page interview in leftist daily Liberation, insisting that his plan was to convince rather than seduce voters. "I have a duty to win," he said. "I'm not asking you to marry me," he told the paper's morning editorial conference, adopting a presidential tone. "I'm not campaigning simply to generate joy. I have a higher responsibility." At a rally in southeast France Friday, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon accused Sarkozy's presidential rivals, and in particular Hollande, of waging a campaign against him that was as "stupid as it is unjust". "It's unjust because you can like, or not appreciate the President of the Republic, but no one can deny that he has the stuff of a head of state capable of deciding, acting and protecting France," he told supporters . Sarkozy has implicitly accepted the possibility of a Hollande victory by warning this could trigger panic on the financial markets and a speculative attack on the euro, bringing France "to its knees". Hollande has vowed to privilege growth over the austerity measures that Sarkozy has imposed in a bid to control France's budget deficit, a move that the right-winger warns would plunge France into the same debt crisis as Spain. The Socialist leader has played down the threat and responded that he is ready to take on the markets and to "dominate" them, accusing Sarkozy of being the plaything of high finance and failing to protect voters. "It's been three years that the markets have been imposing their laws on us. That's my charge against the outgoing candidate, to have been incapable, along with other European leaders, to halt speculative capital flows," he said.  The opinion polls support Hollande's confidence. The latest from the CSA institute, published Friday, predicts that Hollande will beat Sarkozy by 27 percent to 26 percent in the first round on April 22, and by 57 percent to 43 percent in the May 6 run-off. Other polls have shown a more narrow spread, but Hollande had enjoyed a consistent second-round lead in voting intentions since he won the Socialist primary in October, and remains the clear favourite. Part of this has been the unexpected rise of the firebrand Communist-backed candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who stole some of the more cautious Hollande's limelight but generated some much-needed energy on the left. Melenchon's advance -- CSA has him in third place on 17 percent -- has kept predictions for Hollande's first-round score low, but most of his supporters are expected to switch to the centre-leftist before May 6. Nevertheless, the two-week campaign window between the two rounds could turn fierce, when the frontrunners go head-to-head and broadcasters will no longer be forced by law to accord equal time to outsider candidates.