UMP members want Sarko back in 2017

FRANCE’S former President, Nicolas Sarkozy remains the favourite candidate for the 2017 Presidential elections among the UMP faithful, it has emerged.

Mr Sarkozy, who lost to Francois Hollande in the 2012 ballot, is the favoured candidate among 54% of the scandal-hit party’s members, way ahead of potential rivals Alain Juppé and François Fillon, according to a poll.

He may be the popular choice among grassroots UMP members, but Mr Sarkozy has remained tight-lipped about whether he would be prepared to stand.

He is, according to an article in the weekly Le Figaro Magazine which is due to be published tomorrow, taking “time for reflection” on his political future.

But the magazine claims that, privately, Mr Sarkozy has said that France’s democratic model needs to be reinvented.