De Villepin to Run for French Presidency

Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin and center-right politician Dominique de Villepin has announced he would run for the French presidency in the 2012 election as an independent candidate. The 58-year-old, who was Sarkozy’s main rival for leadership of the center right before the last election in 2007, made his announcement on French TV. De Villepin is unlikely to win a large number of votes but his presence in the campaign could harm Sarkozy’s chances by diluting support. De Villepin quit Sarkozy’s UMP party in February and published a political manifesto of his own. He was cleared by an appeals court in September of being part of a smear campaign against Sarkozy in the run-up to the 2007 election. In recent weeks popular centrist Francois Bayrou and former centre-right defence minister Herve Morin also launched presidential bids. Far right candidate Marine Le Pen is expected to win 13-20 per cent of the vote in the April election, some of which could be drawn from Sarkozy’s voter base. De Villepin, is best known abroad in his role as foreign minister in 2003 when France opposed the US-led war in Iraq. He was chief of staff in the mid-1990s to former President Jacques Chirac, who named him prime minister in 2005 after stints as interior and foreign minister.