Paris ? Nicolas Sarkozy was consecrated as the presidential candidate of France’s governing conservatives Sunday, and now the law-and-order interior minister heads into an election showdown with a charismatic Socialist as both try to hold fractious parties together.

Opinion polls show Sarkozy and Socialist rival Segolene Royal, who seeks to become the country’s first female president, tied as front-runners in a field that could number as many as a dozen candidates in the two-round election in April and May.

The winner will usher in a new era after 12 years under President Jacques Chirac, an unpopular conservative who has been increasingly on the political sidelines and is not expected to seek a third term.

Sarkozy, unlike Royal, has firm policy positions on nearly every subject. He has earned kudos and vitriol for vowing to cut cherished workplace protections, championing tough police tactics in hardscrabble housing projects and deporting illegal immigrants.