Ex-PM launches presidential bid

FORMER French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is set to challenge in the 2012 presidential campaign.

He has been an outspoken opponent of President Nicolas Sarkozy and had been touted as a candidate in the 2007 election until Mr Sarkozy was declared the UMP’s unopposed right-wing challenger.

However, right-wing colleagues have greeted his proposal with scepticism; with UMP spokesman Frédéric Lefebvre saying it was just a strategic move to avoid court proceedings over the Clearstream affair.

Mr de Villepin has been accused over a smear campaign alleging Mr Sarkozy and others benefited from illegal arms kickbacks paid into the Luxembourg bank Clearstream.

STORY:Ex-PM could kick trial into touch

Just last week Mr de Villepin said he feared there was a “risk of revolution in France” in the wake of the present industrial unrest where workers have taken bosses hostage and smashed up offices.

While 2007’s Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal has made no secret of her desire to run again in 2012, others in her party have been more coy.

Former party leader and Royal’s ex-partner François Hollande said over the weekend he may stand “depending on circumstances” and the current head of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn, also a Socialist Party member, is a name frequently proposed by political commentators in France.
Picture: DAVID MENDIBOURE