It is said that the French vote first with their hearts and then with their heads when they are choosing their President.

In the first round of voting there are a large number of candidates.  If nobody gets more than 50%, the two with the most votes stand against each other in the second and final round.

The French voted in their first round on Sunday.

Francois Hollande, a bland, establishment socialist, got 28,6%; Nicolas Sarkozy, the incumbent President, 27,1%; and Jean-Luc Melenchon, a tub-thumping, anti-establishment socialist, 11,4%.

 The most startling result was that Marine le Pen, a French nationalist campaigning against immigration, got 18,3%.

 Her large vote gives a worrying indication of French fears about their growing Muslim population.

The French economy, although not in the mess of Spain or Greece, is not performing well.  It has high debt, high unemployment (10%), strangling bureaucracy and falling competitiveness.  Sarkozy promised reform in 2007 but has not delivered it.

Now French heads will decide between Sarkozy, who failed to reform, and Hollande, who doesn’t want to.

Not all that promising.