Swept to power on a tide of hope for a enacting a “rupture” with his predecessors in 2007, Mr Sarkozy faces an epic struggle to convince France he is still the man for the country’s top job.
“Yes, I am candidate for the presidential election,” he told millions of viewers who tuned in to scrutinise his short appearance on TF1’s 8 o’clock news programme – the country’s most watched evening broadcast.
“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.”
“Can you imagine the captain of a ship in the heart of a storm saying: I’m tired, I’m giving up, I’m stopping?’,” he asked, adding: “I have things to say to the French people, I have proposals to make to them.”
Mr Sarkozy’s shipping analogy came weeks after his main rival,François Hollande, the Socialist candidate and frontrunner, was likened to the “captain of a pedalo heading into a storm” by a leftist critic. Mr Hollande has never held a cabinet post. » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Wednesday, February 15, 2012
