Whether the victory in the presidential elections in France goes to the current head of state, Nikolas Sarkozy, or falls in the hands of socialist Francois Oland, will be irrelevant to the policy France will pursue towards Serbia, which will probably remain unchanged, experts say.

France is throwing full support behind Serbia on its European path and advocates for the talks on the country's membership of the Union to begin as soon as possible, Sarkozy said in his April letter to the Serbian president. The signing of the strategic partnership agreement confirmed the traditional friendship and mutual desire for cooperation, he added.

In July last year, Oland said he was for reconciliation, strengthening of democracy, peace and prosperity in the region and a European future of the entire Western Balkans.

Domestic and foreign experts, familiar with the situation in France and the Balkans, told Tanjug that the policy of Paris would not significantly change, regardless of the outcome of the elections.

Predrag Simic, a professor for international relations at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, does not expect a change in the French policy towards Serbia because foreign policy issues are the least liable to radical turns and are something that does not change in developed countries from president to president.

According to Simic, the outcome of the second round of presidential elections in France, on May 6, will primarily bear on the French views concerning the recession, relations within the EU, the future of the Paris-Berlin axis and attitudes on the Euro-Atlantic partnership as a whole.

French journalists, analysts of the Western Balkans region, say that the two presidential candidates did not dwell too much on foreign policy issues during the election campaign, which, in their opinion, means that the official policy of Paris would not change significantly, regardless of the elelction results.

International issues have not been the topic of pre-election debates, and it is logical to expect that the two men will not pursue significantly different (foreign) policies, said Helene Despic-Popovic, a journalist with Liberation, a Paris-based daily.

Her opinion is shared by Michel Martin-Roland, a journalist, writer and former reporter for Agence France-Presse, who believes that when it comes to foreign policy, there will be no significant changes.

Louis Dalmas, the director of B. I. Infos (ex-Balkans-Infos), a monthly magazine based in Paris, noted that foreign policy was a major weakness of the French election campaign, as the candidates barely mentioned it.

This, in my opinion, means that nothing will change in the French attitude towards Serbia: we will continue to pressurize the country, luring it with the entry into the European Union, which is just another form of domination through blackmail, Dalmas said.