Sarkozy joins presidential race
February 15, 2012
Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed on Wednesday evening that he would run for a second term as French president in April.
"Yes, I am a candidate in the presidential election," Sarkozy said in a television interview on French channel TF1.
"I took this decision because France, Europe and the world have for the last three years seen a series of unprecedented crises, which means that not seeking a new mandate from the French people would be abandoning my duties," he said.
The conservative UMP leader's plans come as no surprise, though he had never said in public he would run for a second five-year term.
"Now the real election campaign can begin," said Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, a fellow UMP member, earlier in the day.
Indeed, campaign rallies are already planned in cities across the country for later in the week.
Conservatives are hopeful that Sarkozy's candidacy announcement will give him a much-needed boost in opinion polls. For months the president has been limping behind his main challenger, Socialist leader Francois Hollande.
A recent Harris Interactive poll put Hollande at 28 percent in the first round of voting and Sarkozy at 24 percent. In a runoff, Hollande would win 57 percent of the vote and Sarkozy just 43 percent, the poll found.
The French presidential election takes place in two rounds, on April 22 and May 6.
Angela Merkel came out publically last week in support of Sarkozy in his reelection bid, an unusual move for an incumbent German chancellor.
ncy/rc (AFP, dpa)