Sarkozy vows to be 'candidate of the people' at first rally

President Nicolas Sarkozy rallied his troops Sunday with a call for the French people to stand with him against a defeatist elite and to defend the traditional values of a strong France. Trailing in the polls with barely nine weeks to go before he stands for re-election, the 57-year-old was in combative mood, despite the softening presence of his supermodel wife Carla Bruni in the first row. "I want to ask you something, here, tonight in Marseille, Help me. Help me unite the people of France. You are the people of France," he declared, as the French national anthem, named after the city in which he spoke, rang out. Addressing 10,000 cheering and flag-waving supporters in a conference centre in the rough-and-ready southern port of Marseille, he won his biggest applause for attacks on his Socialist rivals and poll frontrunner Francois Hollande. "We are not like them," he declared, to wild cheers from an audience of smartly dressed southern families, local officials and students from his UMP party's youth wing, chanting "Nicolas, Nicolas, Nicolas!" Reacting after the event, Hollande complained the president was simply defending a weak record with "violence and aggression" and insisted that the speech contained nothing new in terms of policy ideas. Sarkozy's campaign themes -- opposition to gay marriage and immigrant voting rights, support for public spending cuts and nuclear power -- already felt well-worn just four days after he declared his candidacy. He once more called for referendums to help him push through reforms he claims would be obstructed by the Paris elite. Above all he played on fear of the debt crisis haunting Europe, insisting that only his brand of strong leadership could see France through. "We managed to avoid catastrophe," he said. "If a single person in France doubts that, if he wants to know what we escaped, what could have happened if France wasn't strong, he should look at what happened to the Greek worker. "Think about what's happening today to Italian pensioners. Think how the jobless feel in Spain, where unemployment is three times what it is in France. Imagine a Portuguese civil servant seeing his wages cut by a quarter. "And look at the thousands of American families living in trailer parks because they have no work and can't pay the upkeep of a house," he said. Novelty was provided by the presence of his 44-year-old wife in the crowd, sporting a sober yet elegant dark jacket and grey pants, and flanked by UMP leader Jean-Francois Cope and Prime Minister Francois Fillon. "It was very moving, amazing," she declared after the speech as the couple plunged into the crowd to shake hands and greet a throng of well-wishers. Once a fixture on the world's catwalks and the Parisian social scene, the first lady has been much more discreet since October, when she gave birth to the presidential couple's first child together, their daughter Giulia. The Sarkozy camp had seemed set on keeping her in the background while they worked on helping the candidate shake off his flashy image. But the past week has seen a media offensive to recast the first lady in a more traditional light as a simple wife and mother, before bringing her onto the campaign trail in the closing weeks. Sarkozy made have ditched the Ray-Ban shades, the Rolex watch and the luxury yacht holidays, but it might take more than that to turn his fortunes around in the middle of an ecnomic crisis. Sunday's latest opinion poll by LH2-Yahoo! -- in line with all recent surveys -- forecast that Hollande would narrowly win the April 22 first round vote and then sweep the May 6 run-off with 55 percent to Sarkozy's 45. "France is in crisis, we must support our president because Hollande would be a catastrophe," said 54-year-old supporter Brigitte Gensollen, who came to the rally with her 81-year-old father Daniel. "It's going to be difficult," he admitted. "The start of his term was seen as catastrophic. He rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way. His job now is to bring back those whose love for him was disappointed." Sarkozy's tactic to win them back was to pose as the honest realist battling to bring France united through the crisis without making dishonest promises. He accused Hollande of selling out workers in the nuclear industry in a political deal with the Greens and warned that giving non-naturalised immigrants the vote would divide France into warring interest groups. "I want to be candidate of the people of France," he said. "I won't be the candidate of a small elite against the people."