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600th anniversary of heroine's birth

A statue of Joan of Arc is seen in the courtyard of French far-right National Front political party's headquarters in Nanterre Jan. 5, 2012.

With a big dollop of patriotism, French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday struck back at far-right nationalists who claim fabled heroine Joan of Arc as a symbol of their own.

The French leader made a pilgrimage to the village of Domremy-La-Pucelle, the supposed birthplace of Joan of Arc eastern France, on Friday for the 600th anniversary of her birth and delivered a lofty speech that he hopes will improve his soured image in many French minds.

With presidential elections this spring, the conservative Mr. Sarkozy's speech amounted to a political pre-emptive strike against the extreme-right National Front party (FN) that has sought to co-opt Joan of Arc as its patron saint.

"Joan belongs to no party, no faction, no clan," Mr. Sarkozy said later in the town of Vaucouleurs, in a clear swipe at FN leader Marine Le Pen who will on Saturday pay her own homage to the 15th-century Catholic martyr at a rally in Paris.

The far-right National Front is expected to mount a strong challenge to Mr. Sarkozy's bid for a second mandate in April's presidential election. Opinion polls show Mr. Sarkozy facing a serious challenge from Ms. Le Pen. Polls give Ms. Le Pen as much as 20 per cent of the vote in the first round.

Since the 1980s, the FN has sought to appropriate Joan of Arc, who has broad appeal, partly for the perception that she "booted out" medieval English "immigrants." Outside the party's headquarters on the outskirts of Paris stands a statue of Joan of Arc in full body armour. The party organizes a parade in her honour every May 1.

The teenage Joan of Arc led the French to several victories over the English during the Hundred Years War. She was caught, tried for heresy and witchcraft, and burned at the stake in 1431 for her convictions.

She had claimed she heard voices from a trio of saints telling her to deliver France from the English. The Vatican canonized her in 1920 and Pope Benedict XVI last year hailed her as a model for public officials.

The anniversary of Joan's birth on Jan. 6, 1412, couldn't have come at a better time for Mr. Sarkozy: Though his poll numbers have crept up in recent weeks, they remain low and he still trails Socialist Party nominee Francois Hollande in the race to the two-round election in April and May.

Many political pundits partly credit Mr. Sarkozy's presidential election victory in 2007 to his success in siphoning off support from the National Front by building a hard-as-nails image while he was interior minister for nearly four years.

With a cool and relaxed delivery of the 19-minute speech, Mr. Sarkozy attempted to pull the symbolism of Joan of Arc toward the political centre – and appeared to revel in speech that he clearly felt hit the mark.

"May we continue ... to think of her as the symbol of our unity, and not leave her in the hands of those who would like to use her to divide," he said. "Dividing in the name of Joan of Arc is to betray Joan of Arc's memory."

In grandiloquent praise, Mr. Sarkozy depicted Joan not just as a defender of France, but as an international ideal of the fight for freedom and a purveyor of women's rights – centuries before the feminist movement.

"The place of Joan of Arc was not in gilded legend, but in the history of France ... Joan is the incarnation of the most beautiful French virtues," Mr. Sarkozy said.

While noting the English "enemy" of yesteryear that Joan of Arc had battled, Mr. Sarkozy also insisted that she represented "love of one's country without hatred of others."

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