The sovereign debt crisis has certainly taken a heavy toll on European governments incumbent at the beginning of its onslaught in 2010. In fact, there have been no less than 16 changes in European Union governments since 2010, and 11 of those were from among the 17 countries using the euro.

And if matters go the way political pundits and surveys are predicting, by Sunday, the fall of the Sarkozy government will make that 17 of the EU’s 27 governments, and 12 of the 17 eurozone member governments to have been placed on the chopping block after having been voted out of office or falling in confidence votes.

And in most cases, a direct line could be drawn between those governments’ exit and the austerity measures put in place because of the economic situation.

The Romanian government collapsed on Friday in the wake of a no-confidence vote, and more changes are almost certainly on the way, not least here in Malta where parliamentary manoeuvring over the coming week or so will determine whether we in Malta are to see an early election, which could very well prove disastrous for the incumbent government.

The Czech Republic also just narrowly avoided a no-confidence vote loss, and the Dutch government last week resigned after disagreements over budget tightening measures. Dutch voters are in fact facing a second set of early elections since the sovereign crisis took hold.

On Sunday, Greece will elect a new parliament, while the Swedish and Bulgarian administrations are being led by minority governments. After the UK, Spain and Italy, France - in the aftermath of this Sunday’s presidential runoff vote - stands to be the next large EU member to see a change of the guard.

French Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande currently appears to stand a very good chance of replacing conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy when the French take to the polls in a second round of voting.

As matters stand, Sarkozy is on course to becoming France’s first president to be voted out of office in 30 years. His chances of averting such a miserable fate, and an infamous place in the French presidential history books, may have taken a turn for the better or the worse last night as, at the time of writing, rightwing Sarkozy and his leftwing challenger Hollande were no doubt preparing for what was being billed as a historic debate.

French newspaper headlines yesterday morning attempted to breathe life into what many French have considered to have been a somewhat lacklustre campaign, considering the prize that is up for grabs, and advertised last night’s square-off as ‘The Last Duel’ and ‘The Final Confrontation’.

And while experts say that past French presidential debates have never swung a French election, surveys are continuing to predict a Hollande victory on Sunday. In fact, not a single poll has predicted a Sarkozy victory, and the incumbent knows very well that he is the underdog – but then again, that is not always a bad thing when it comes to public opinion.

But whatever the surveys say, the race is far from over. Sarkozy mustered 27 % of the vote in the first round of presidential elections on 22 April, Hollande 28 % and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen garnered 18 %.

Sarkozy may gather further support from voters who gave Le Pen her surprisingly strong third place, but surveys give Hollande as much as a 12 % advantage over Sarkozy. Sarkozy has turned to courting Le Pen’s voters, but she said on Tuesday that she would back neither candidate – a move that has deprived Sarkozy of sorely needed votes. She did, however, call on her supporters to refrain from abstaining in Sunday’s determining vote.

Sarkozy, in fact, has recently taken a page out of Le Pen’s book of rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims and the inhuman face of Europe with its rules and regulations in his campaign.

But whatever the case, Sarkozy will go down fighting, and he could still very well pull off victory, seemingly against all odds, but his challenger Hollande is sounding increasingly confident and his campaign rallies have the air of victory parties.

The 57-year-old Sarkozy, in a surprising admission this week, has acknowledged possible defeat and said he would quit politics if he loses: “I will fight with all my strength to win your confidence, to protect and lead you and build a strong France, but if that is not your choice I will bow out. That’s the way it is, and I will have had a great life in politics. I’ll do something else. I don’t know what.”