THE PROSPECT of Dominique de Villepin challenging French president Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidency in two years’ time drew closer yesterday when the former prime minister announced the creation of a new centre-right party.
With Mr Sarkozy’s ruling UMP struggling to regroup this week after a heavy defeat in regional elections, Mr de Villepin timed his long-expected return to national politics to take full advantage of his rival’s troubles. “I have decided to create a new political movement that will be free and independent,” he told a packed press conference in Paris. “The motto of our struggle will be a republic of solidarity.”
Mr de Villepin said his new party – which will be officially launched in June – would stand for a more socially responsible conservatism. He called for higher income and corporate taxes and said the government should drop the “fiscal shield” that protects the wealthy from paying more than 50 per cent in tax.
Although Mr de Villepin did not mention the president by name, the occupant of the Élysée Palace was clearly his principal target.
Declaring himself “ill at ease” with the policies pursued by the government, including its divisive recent debate on national identity, Mr de Villepin said his movement would be “free, independent, open to all, above partisan divisions”.
The deep mutual antipathy between the two former cabinet colleagues reached a nadir recently with the so-called Clearstream affair, in which Mr de Villepin was accused of trying to smear Mr Sarkozy and destroy his presidential ambitions. The aristocratic former prime minister was cleared in a trial in January but faces another court battle after the state prosecutor decided to appeal.
Yesterday’s announcement came at a bad time for the president. Last week’s trouncing at the polls has already led to the abandonment of an unpopular carbon tax and a minor cabinet reshuffle most noteworthy for the promotion to cabinet of two close allies of Mr de Villepin and former French president Jacques Chirac.
An opinion poll this week in the daily Le Parisienput Mr de Villepin ahead of Mr Sarkozy in a list of potential centre-right candidates, but since the former diplomat has not stood for elected office, his popularity is untested.
The president’s allies have played down Mr de Villepin’s chances, saying he has too little by way of resources, time and support in the party to seriously challenge the incumbent.