Francois Hollande, the left-wing frontrunner in the French presidential race, has vowed to make the rich pay the highest price to help drag the country out of its economic crisis, while promising to pump more money into schools and state-assisted jobs.

The Socialist rural MP, who recently declared "my real adversary in this campaign is the world of finance", launched his manifesto, a road map of how the left would deal with the financial crisis. Mr. Hollande said he would raise taxes for banks, big companies and France's richest people, and use the money to help wipe out the nation's crippling deficit.

By scrapping some €29 billion ($35.8 billion) worth of tax breaks for wealthier people introduced under President Nicolas Sarkozy, he said he could find €20 billion to deal with the corrosion of French society: record unemployment, soaring youth jobless figures and an education system that has been shamed as one of the most unequal in Europe, with one in six children leaving without qualifications.

Mr. Hollande increased his lead in the polls after his first big rally on Sunday used Barack Obama-inspired slogans of "hope and change." But he was under pressure to counter charges by Mr. Sarkozy that the left was high-spending, with its head in the clouds of idealism and little credibility on managing the financial crisis.

For the first time since World War II the election campaign is dominated by an unpredictable economic crisis. Unemployment is at a 12-year high with 2.8 million jobless, and youth unemployment is above 20 per cent. With France losing its AAA credit rating, and a gaping hole in state welfare coffers, the French left cannot make its traditional high-spending promises on public services, and has little room for maneuvering.

If there were to be blood, sweat and tears in France, Mr. Hollande suggested that should come from the richest 5 percent. "If there are sacrifices to be made, and there will be, then it will be for the wealthiest to make them," he said.

One plank of his manifesto was making the tax system fairer - raising the tax bracket for the highest earners so favored under Mr. Sarkozy. He also focused on education and youth, promising 60,000 new jobs in schools and 150,000 state-aided jobs for youth, as well as help for small start-up companies.

The banking industry would be forced to draw a line between its speculative financial market operations and the more traditional role of using savers' deposits to finance the economy. Mr. Hollande said he could bring the deficit back on target by 2017.

Mr. Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party said Mr. Hollande's manifesto would lead to a "middle-class tax bloodbath."

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Editor's Note: ...and Atlas shruggs...