French President Nicolas Sarkozy defended the budget and labor policies that have put his reelection at serious risk in a speech to supporters on Sunday, blasting his opponent as out of touch with reality.

Sarkozy, who made his bid for the presidency official only last Wednesday, told a crowd of thousands in Marseille that he stood by his record of raising the retirement age and cutting the number of state employees.

"These decisions, I take responsibly for them because they were difficult," he said. "But if I hadn't made these decisions, where would we be today? That's the question!"

Tough odds

Sarkozy faces an uphill battle in the campaign, which culminates in the first round of voting on April 22 and a potential run-off on May 6. The latest opinion poll predicts his main challenger, Socialist Francois Hollande, would win a plurality in the first round and beat Sarkozy in the run-off with 55 percent of the vote.

In an apparent reference to the tough odds against him, Sarkozy said: "The truth doesn't scare me."

While he made no reference to Hollande by name, Sarkozy tacitly lashed out at his challenger, describing himself as the "candidate of the people of France. I won't be the candidate of a small elite against the people."

Hollande responded to Sarkozy's attacks by saying the president was defending his unpopular record with "violence and aggression" and said he presented no new ideas. Hollande's textbook Socialist plan is based on controlling market excesses and raising taxes on high earners to invest more in education, research and public sector jobs.

"I maintain what I said about finance," Hollande said in a TV interview shortly after Sarkozy's speech. "It is our enemy when it gets out of control, when it leads to market excesses and dominates the real economy, when it produces excessive compensation, stock options and bonuses."

acb/slk (AP, AFP)