Sarkozy seeks to win over far-right Nicolas Sarkozy promised new controls on immigration and legal protections for police who shoot suspects as he made his most explicit appeal yet to far-right voters ahead of France's presidential election on May 6. Fighting for his political survival with little over a week of campaigning left, the centre-right incumbent Mr Sarkozy appeared in one of Paris's poorest suburbs to deliver a speech almost entirely devoted to themes favoured by the far-right National Front. Mr Sarkozy who lags behind François Hollande, the Socialist challenger, in opinion polls, railed against left-leaning media for allegedly portraying him as a "fascist," denouncing them as "Tartuffes, hypocrites" for his appeal to the 6.5m people who voted for Marine Le Pen, the National Front leader. Ms Le Pen polled an unexpectedly high 17.9 per cent in the election's first round on April 22, and her supporters" vote will be pivotal in the May 6 run-off between Mr Sarkozy and Mr Hollande. Speaking to 1,500 supporters in a youth centre in Seine-Saint-Denis on Thursday, Mr Sarkozy referred to his own Hungarian immigrant origins, saying: "I know where I come from . . . I hate racism, I hate xenophobia, I hate homophobia. The suburb, notorious for the 2005 riots, has the highest concentration of immigrants in the country with one in three of its 1.5m population of foreign extraction. The area is a stronghold of the left, but Mr Sarkozy turned up in La Raincy, a relatively prosperous enclave where he took 42 per cent of the vote in Sunday's first round vote and where Ms Le Pen also polled strongly. Looking gaunt, his white shirt soaked in perspiration beneath a dark suit, Mr Sarkozy called for immigrants to sit a French exam before entering the country and for a change in the law to grant policemen who shoot suspects "legitimate self-defence" - a policy that is on Ms Le Pen's agenda. Mr Sarkozy spoke hours after police demonstrated in central Paris over a judicial investigation into a policeman for shooting dead a fugitive in the same suburb. The president was accused on Wednesday by François Bayrou, the centrist candidate, of "validating the discourse of the National Front." Mr Bayrou polled 9.1 per cent in the first round and his criticism of Mr Sarkozy's rightward lurch suggested he could urge his voters to back Mr Hollande. Defending his appeal to National Front voters and adopting the more subdued tone of recent rallies, Mr Sarkozy said: "Should I campaign in the second round like nothing had happened in the first? . . . Are there 6.5m fascists [in France]? Am I a fascist because I speak to 6.5m people? Ms Le Pen accused both main candidates of "disrespect" and "contempt" for her voters on Thursday and issued a challenge to Mr Sarkozy to refrain from blocking her party from gaining seats in parliament in June's legislative elections. "In a run-off between the National Front and a Socialist, would the UMP and the president prefer to have one of my deputies or a Socialist elected?" she asked on RTL radio, referring to Sarkozy's centre-right Union for a Popular Movement party. I still don't have an answer to that question. I'm waiting," she said, when asked who she would endorse. How I express myself will depend on the response. Ms Le Pen is to hold a big rally on labour day on May 1 but is not expected to endorse either candidate. Opinion polls show up to two-thirds of Mr Sarkozy's supporters favour a deal with the National Front but he has ruled out any agreement which would give the far-right ministerial positions or help them win parliamentary seats. However, he has stopped short of instructing UMP supporters to vote for any other party than the National Front in the second round of the legislative ballot to keep the far-right out of parliament, as politicians have done in the past.