Sarkozy launches presidency bid

FRENCH interior minister and right wing favourite Nicolas Sarkozy launched his campaign for the presidency at a triumphant party congress in Paris, issuing an appeal to voters of all persuasions to make him a “president of the people” at April’s election.

In a speech before some 80,000 members of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Sarkozy set out the broad lines of his manifesto, promising to “reassert the value of work“, restore “authority and respect” and establish a society of “obligations as well as rights“.

He was speaking after results of the party’s internal ballot were announced to a jubilant audience, giving Sarkozy more than 98% of votes cast. Some 69% of the party’s 338,000 members took part in the ballot, the result of which was a foregone conclusion as Sarkozy was the only nominee.

The 51-year-old son of a Hungarian immigrant, “Sarko” — as he is widely called — is the only politician who, polls say, can beat Segolene Royal, the Socialist contender who hopes to take over from Jacques Chirac to become France’s first woman president.

However, his progress has been hampered by bitter feuding within his own camp, amid fears that his trenchant views on immigration, law-and-order and the economy make him unacceptable outside the ideological right.