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PARIS: French President Jacques Chirac gave his
backing Wednesday to right-wing presidential candidate Nicolas
Sarkozy, announcing that the interior minister would leave the
government on March 26 to focus full-time on the race.
Chirac said he would give his
“vote and support” to the 52-year-old Sarkozy, as the candidate
of the governing right-wing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) which
he founded in 2002, in a televised statement.
“Five years ago, I called for
the creation of the UMP to allow France to pursue a rigorous policy
of modernization. In all its diversity, this political movement
chose to support the candidacy of Nicolas Sarkozy in the
presidential election, because of his qualities.”
“Naturally, I will therefore
bring him my vote and my support,” Chirac said.
Polls show Sarkozy currently
leading the race to succeed Chirac in the April-May election, ahead
of the Socialist Segolene Royal, 53, and the centrist Francois
Bayrou, 55. Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, 78, comes fourth,
well ahead of the eight remaining candidates.
Chirac, who ruled out seeking a
third term just 10 days ago, waited until the last possible moment
to give his backing to Sarkozy, a one-time protégé who is
campaigning for a “clean break” with the policies of his
government.
Despite their differences,
Sarkozy had admitted that Chirac’s endorsement would “carry
weight” with the electorate.
Sarkozy’s five years at the
interior ministry, from 2002 to 2004 and again from 2005 to 2007,
did more than anything in his 30-year career to shape his image as a
tough-talking man of action.
Royal’s Socialist Party (PS)
has accused Sarkozy of using his powers as interior minister—the
number-two position in the French government—to advance his
campaign.
Sarkozy had dismissed the
criticism, saying only that he would step down before the start of
the official campaign on April 9. He is expected to be succeeded at
the interior ministry by Overseas Minister Francois Baroin, a protégé
of Chirac.
Sarkozy’s record as interior
minister is hotly disputed.
He claims major successes in
driving down overall crime, which has dropped 9.4 percent since
2002, by setting new targets for police, and bringing in stiffer
sentences for repeat young offenders and measures such as electronic
tagging.
But his critics accuse him of
undermining community policing and fanning tensions in France’s
tense suburbs by referring to young troublemakers as “rabble”
that should be “hosed down.” They point at conflicting figures
suggesting that violent crime is actually on the rise.
It was under Sarkozy’s watch
that riots broke out in late 2005 in hundreds of mainly-immigrant
suburbs, where his tough line on law and order has made him deeply
unpopular—even though his supporters credit him with ensuring not
a single rioter was injured in clashes with police.
His centrist rival Bayrou, who
received a triumphant welcome during a recent visit to a rough Paris
suburb, rounded on Sarkozy’s record this week, echoing claims that
minister has become a persona non grata in the suburbs.
“Five years as interior
minister, and he cannot even set foot in France’s suburbs,”
Bayrou said. “He said there would be no more lawless neighborhoods.
Today there are entire districts where the police are on orders not
to enter.”
 --AFP
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