Cantona for Elysée in housing protest

FOOTBALL star Eric Cantona has launched a bid for the presidency to get the problems of the homeless on to the election agenda.

Cantona, who caused a media storm last year by calling on people to withdraw their money from banks to protest the financial crisis, released a letter to French mayors calling for 500 signatures - the number required to stand for the Elysée Palace.

The 45-year-old told daily newspaper Libération that he wanted to draw attention to housing and social problems because "it's crucial".

He added: "We can get involved in many causes, all important, but we cannot do everything. I chose housing because it seemed to me it was essential and it concerns 10 million people."

Calling himself "a citizen very much aware of our times", he felt he had to speak up "more seriously than usual when our country is faced with difficult choices". France goes to the vote at the end of April.

He has his own knowledge of housing problems as the house he was raised in while a child in Marseille was originally a cave in the hills above the city.

The former Leeds and Manchester United star and present-day actor said in his letter to the mayors that the opportunities for young people today were too limited. That led to "injustices... too many, too violent, too systematic".

This morning, his website at www.ericantona.fr points directly to a petition led by housing campaigners Fondation Abbé-Pierre calling on election candidates to make housing problems a priority during the campaign.

It calls for action to:

* Make sufficient housing available

*Regulate the market to control costs as prices have doubled and rents risen 50% in 10 years

* To demolish 600,000 unfit homes where one million people live in poverty and reinforce help for the people involved

* Take a new look at how towns and cities are built so people can live better together.

The site has already received nearly 102,000 signatures.

Photo: Georges Biard