Villepin to stand as president
The former prime minister's announcement comes as a surprise - and will annoy Sarkozy's UMP Party
FORMER prime minister Dominique de Villepin has caused surprise by saying he is standing as president.
A UMP party prime minister under Jacques Chirac before founding his own centre-right party République Solidaire in 2010, he was previously said to have reconciled with Nicolas Sarkozy and to be unlikely to stand.
Speaking on TF1 television, he said: “I want to bring together all the French people, of the left and the right and the centre, with a Gaullist ideal.”
He said that he wanted to “defend a certain idea of France” that is “today humiliated by market forces that are imposing more and more austerity”. “What has happened to social justice, jobs, growth?” he said.
Referring to President Sarkozy’s European politics he said: “Today we are to a great extent losing our sovereignty. We are aligning ourselves with interests that are not those of France. I believe we must have more courage than that.”
Recent polls suggest Villepin would only get 1% of the vote, however his decision to stand will be unpopular with Sarkozy as he risks taking away votes from the current president in the first election round; as does Hervé Morin of Nouveau Centre, also around 1% in the polls, MoDem’s François Bayrou (13%) and the Front National’s Marine Le Pen (13.5%).
Villepin was cleared of involvement in the Clearstream scandal earlier this year – an alleged smear campaign against figures including Sarkozy - leaving him free to pursue his presidential ambitions.
He recently stepped down as president of his party, though he remains its figurehead.
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