FORMER PRIME minister Dominique de Villepin has declared he will stand against Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency next year.
Mr de Villepin, a patrician former diplomat who left Mr Sarkozy’s centre-right UMP party last year and has become one of the president’s fiercest critics, will stand as leader of his newly-formed party, République Solidaire. Positioning himself as a compassionate, socially responsible conservative, he hopes to rally support from centrist-leaning voters disillusioned with Mr Sarkozy’s leadership.
“I don’t believe the truth resides on the left, the right or in the centre,” Mr de Villepin said last night. “I intend to defend a certain idea of France,” he added, echoing a line made famous by Charles de Gaulle.
Mr de Villepin’s announcement came as a surprise in political circles. He had not been fundraising heavily, and the latest opinion poll, published just hours before his declaration, gave him just 1 per cent support. “There will be surprises, many surprises,” he said.
UMP officials discount Mr de Villepin’s chances, saying he lacks funds and political support, but in a hint of the party’s concern that he could chip away at Mr Sarkozy’s centre-right vote, party leader Jean-François Copé said recently his door was “wide open” to the former prime minister.
“Our family, in its widest sense, must be united . . . to work together for our country, because the problems we face are sufficiently serious for us to join forces,” he said.
The deep mutual antipathy between Mr de Villepin and Mr Sarkozy reached a nadir with the Clearstream affair, in which Mr de Villepin was accused of trying to smear Mr Sarkozy and destroy his presidential ambitions.
An appeals court cleared him of the charges in September, ending the six-year saga.