Sarkozy announces bid for 2017 presidential race

Former French leader Nicolas Sarkozy announced on Monday he will seek the nomination of his centre-right party to stand in next year’s presidential election. “I have decided to be a candidate in the 2017 presidential election,” Sarkozy, who was president between 2007 and 2012, wrote in the foreword to a new book “Tout pour la […]

Former French leader Nicolas Sarkozy announced on Monday he will seek the nomination of his centre-right party to stand in next year’s presidential election.
“I have decided to be a candidate in the 2017 presidential election,” Sarkozy, who was president between 2007 and 2012, wrote in the foreword to a new book “Tout pour la France” (All for France) due out later this week.
“The next five years will be filled with danger but also with hope,” wrote the 61-year-old conservative, who had made no secret of his ambition to reconquer the top office.
His announcement that he will seek his party’s nomination at a primary in November comes in the midst of an resurgent debate over the place of Islam in French society, encapsulated in the row over the Islamic burkini swimsuit.