Nicolas Sarkozy won a vital battle at the weekend in his as yet undeclared campaign to seize back the French presidency in 2017, reports The Financial Times.
More than two years ago he was forced out of the Elysée Palace when he lost the presidential election to François Hollande and looked set to quit politics for good. But on Saturday Mr Sarkozy won the race to become leader of the centre-right UMP party, a move widely seen as a stepping stone for his attempt to be his country’s head of state again. That the 59-year-old continues to harbour this ambition is bad for his party and bad for France.
By winning the UMP leadership, Mr Sarkozy does not automatically become the centre-right’s presidential candidate. In 2016, the UMP will hold primaries to choose its nominee for the Elysée Palace. Other top-rank politicians in the party – such as the former French prime minister Alain Juppé – have formally declared that they will stand. But Mr Sarkozy’s determination appears in no doubt. At an unsettled time for French politics and the economy, he clearly believes he can unite France again.
Mr Sarkozy should rid himself of any illusions that he is France’s saviour-in-waiting. First, it is not clear the French want him back. He won the UMP leadership this weekend by securing 64.5 per cent of the votes cast by party activists. This was far fewer than the 85 per cent he scored when he became head of the party first time round in 2004. Mr Sarkozy is not respected by his party to the extent he once was. An opinion poll on Sunday showed that some 50 per cent of UMP sympathisers regard Mr Juppé as the more “serious” of the two centre-right figures, compared with 30 per cent who view the former president in this light.
The other reason why Mr Sarkozy should not seek a return to the presidency is that his previous tenure was so disappointing. True, he had to contend with the impact of the global financial crisis. But Mr Sarkozy was not the reformist head of state that he initially pledged to be. During his five years at the Elysée, France’s public spending shot up by 15 per cent and public debt by 30 per cent. No revolutionary reforms were introduced on his watch. This was a presidency remembered for “bling” not “rupture”.
France is today in the throes of arguably its deepest crisis since the foundation of the Fifth Republic. The French economy is stagnating, with data last week showing nearly 3.5m unemployed. The weakness of the mainstream political parties creates an unprecedented opportunity for Marine Le Pen and the far right National Front. A recent poll suggested that if the first round of the French presidential election were held today, Ms Le Pen would win it with 30 per cent of the vote. This is a horrifying prospect for France and for the EU.
Read more of this report from The Financial Times.
See also: The return of Nicolas Sarkozy and the obstacle course ahead