France election: what happens next Campaigning and opinion polls, which were suspended over the weekend, start up again in earnest today. Mr Hollande is expected to hold a mass rally in Limoges this week, then in the Socialist bastion of Toulouse on May 3. Among Mr Sarkozy's meetings will reportedly be a major rally in Paris, perhaps by the Eiffel Tower. But "le crunch" will be when the two candidates clash in a lone head-to-head televised debate on May 3. The victor of the May 6 run-off takes up office in a usually lavish inauguration ceremony held at the Elysée Palace 10 days later, on May 16.