Sarkozy says no deal with NF party

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PARIS, April 25 (UPI) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday if re-elected, he would make no deal with the far-right National Front party nor give NF members ministry jobs.

Sarkozy told France Info radio "there will be no agreement with the National Front and no [National Front] ministers," the BBC reported.

But referring to the 17.9 percent the National Front's Marine Le Pen captured in Sunday's first round of elections, Sarkozy said: "We need to speak to the 18 percent who voted for Marine Le Pen. I don't regard this 18 percent as people with extreme-right ideas."

Sarkozy, Radio France Internationale said, also told France Info FN voters had cast "a crisis vote, a vote of anger" and promised to "listen to them."

Le Pen Wednesday called on Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement and the party's leader, Jean-Francois Cope, to "clearly state if they would call for a Socialist vote in constituencies where the FN faces the Socialists" in legislative elections in June.

The National Front holds no seats in France's National Assembly.

Socialist candidate Francois Hollande won 28.6 percent of the vote to Sarkozy's 27.1 percent.

Hollande also said he wanted to know where Sarkozy's party would stand on the parliamentary election.