Nicolas Sarkozy will announce his political comeback next Thursday, immediately after a press conference by President François Hollande, friends said on Tuesday, reports The Telegraph.
Mr Hollande, humiliated by his ex-girlfriend's memoirs and weakened by a mutiny within Socialist ranks, now faces the prospect of being upstaged by Mr Sarkozy.
The former conservative president, who withdrew from politics after being defeated by Mr Hollande in 2012, will relaunch himself as the man "to save France" a close aide said.
"He is determined to settle the score with Hollande," Mr Sarkozy's former adviser Henri Guaino told the news magazine Le Point.
Tanned and rested after holidays in the south of France and Bali, Mr Sarkozy is to mark the beginning of a long-planned campaign to regain the presidency by declaring that he will be a candidate for the leadership of the UMP, the deeply divided and indebted conservative opposition party.
He is expected to make the announcement immediately after a press conference by Mr Hollande, scheduled for Thursday next week.
Sources close to the former president say he wants to cast himself as the main opposition challenger and steal the limelight not just from Mr Hollande but also from rivals within the UMP.
Several high-profile MPs threw their support behind Mr Sarkozy on Tuesday. Jean-François Copé, the former leader of the UMP who was forced to resign amid a funding scandal, called on the party to unite behind Mr Sarkozy.
Mr Sarkozy's wife, the supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni, is said to be furious at his plan to re-enter the political fray, fearing that the media will try to "tear him to pieces", a friend told Le Parisien newspaper.
Read more of this report from The Telegraph.