Europe's right 'doesn't like me': French Socialist Hollande

(PARIS) - France's Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande said Thursday he did not want to "scare" Europe's conservative leaders but was aware that they "don't like me very much".

Hollande, leading in polls against President Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of the April-May vote, has angered Europe's right-wing, in particular German Chancellor Angela Merkel, by vowing to renegotiate the EU's fiscal restraint pact.

"I am not here to scare them, even if I've understood that they don't like me very much, which is probably because I have positions that are different from theirs," he said on France 2 public television.

Hollande said that, if he wins, "I will have to work with European leaders, but I wanted to be clear right from the start".

"European leaders have heard me, they haven't listened for the moment, but they have heard me," he said.

Merkel has openly backed Sarkozy in the campaign while Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron has wished his "friend" Sarkozy luck.