Ahead of next April’s French presidential elections, UMP party leader Nicolas Sarkozy has chosen the birthday of his foe, and current President of the Republic, Jacques Chirac, as the day to announce he will run to be his party’s candidate.Announcing his candidature to the local press on Wednesday 29th November, Sarkozy, who has been president of the UMP party since November 2004, currently remains the favourite to win the election if the numerous recent opinion polls are to be believed.
His centre-right UMP party is due to select its candidate in January and President Jacques Chirac is not expected to seek a third term, but it is possible he may, even though he is now 74 years of age, chuck in his hat just to spite his rival Sarkozy.
Mr Sarkozy speaking in an interview published in a number of regional newspapers on Thursday said: “I feel I have the strength, the energy and the desire to propose a different view of France”.
“I have the ambition to develop a new relationship with the French based on two words: confidence and respect,” he continued, “confidence in pledges made, and respect for every Frenchman considered individually”.
Mr Sarkozy will offer UMP members an alternative to candidates from the Chirac side of the party – which includes such political figures as current Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, and is thought to have the backing of about 75% of the UMP's membership, which currently stands at about 300,000.
But the rivalry and hatred between Chirac and Sarkozy has been long running - they were once even thought of as political father and son; or at least son-in-law. But since falling out 12 years ago, when Sarkozy revealed he would be supporting Edouard Balladur, the Prime Minister at the time and former Chirac acolyte, in the 1995 presidential election, they have vigorously detested one another.Then there was the Clearstream affair, which was intended to dent Sarkozy’s name: a bogus allegation that Sarkozy, and others, had illegal bank accounts in Luxembourg, yet despite this Nicolas Sarkozy is apparently still one of the few politicians whom Chirac addresses as “tu” rather than the formal version “vous”.
According to the Independent’s John Lichfield, Sarkozy, “with his energy, his cheek, his uncloaked ambition, his impetuousness, his tactical brilliance, his occasional tactical stupidity, Sarkozy resembles the young Chirac,” but notes that there are important differences between the two: “Sarkozy seems at least to want to DO something; not just to BE something”.
He has, after all, been dubbed by many political analysts as “the French Margaret Thatcher”, someone who will shake up the country after having promised to reverse what many people see as a feeling of decline in France.
However, his handling of the 2005 riots in Clichy-sous-Bois, which were aggravated by Sarkozy’s describing suburban youth gangs as “racaille” (scum), did at the time did very little for his reputation. But Sarkozy is on his way back, and in the aftermath, he was even seen by many white middle-class voters as their best protection against suburban violence!
Sarkozy is now looking to be a powerful candidate.Whoever wins the UMP's vote, to be held on the 14th January 2007, will face the Socialist Party's Segolene Royal, who won the race to represent the party with nearly 60% of the vote last month.
Whether it is Sarkozy or Royal who takes over the hotseat from Chirac in May 2007, one thing is for sure, the race for the Elysée is now hotting up. Sarkozy’s announcement of his intention to run for election came as little surprise, but the timing may have left Chirac choking on his Birthday morning croissant…
