Sarkozy launches battle for reelection against Hollande

By Clare Byrne Feb 15, 2012, 20:57 GMT

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy launched his campaign for reelection, announcing Wednesday that he would seek a second five-year term in what looms as a hard-fought race against Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande.

'Yes, I am a candidate in the (April-May) presidential election,' Sarkozy said in an interview with TF1 television, confirming what has been seen as an open secret.

To bow out now, in the midst of a crisis, would to 'abandon ship,' he said. The 57-year-old incumbent said that he would champion a 'strong France.'

'The French have to understand that if France is strong, they will be protected,' Sarkozy said.

He responded to criticism that he has achieved little since 2007, when he was elected on a reform ticket.

'We've done a lot, but we can't do everything in five years,' he said.

The main innovation of his second term would be to give the French a greater say in their future by holding referendums, he said.

A first referendum would deal with unemployment benefits.

Sarkozy proposes to review the welfare system, so that jobseekers would have to complete a training course proposed by the state in order to receive unemployment benefits.

At the end of the course, the jobseeker would be obliged to accept the first job offer corresponding to his profile.

The proposal has drawn fierce criticism from trade unions and opposition parties, who have accused Sarkozy of portraying the country's nearly 3 million unemployed as spongers, to try to win over supporters from the far-right National Front.

Sarkozy argued that the rights of the unemployed came with responsibilities.

Two months ahead of the April 22 first-round vote, Sarkozy is trailing with 24 to 26 per cent of first-round voter intentions, compared with 28 to 31 per cent for Hollande, a parliament member and former Socialist Party leader.

If it came to a run-off vote between the two, Hollande would sail home with 57 per cent, a poll showed Wednesday.

Running in third and fourth places are National Front leader Marine le Pen and centrist candidate Francois Bayrou, respectively.

While Sarkozy takes credit for pushing through reforms to the pension and university systems, many French people developed a strong dislike for him early in his presidency for being too chummy with the rich, parading his relationship with ex-supermodel Carla Bruni, now his wife, and failing to act on unemployment.

Hollande on Wednesday called Sarkozy's record 'a fiasco.' Bayrou said the French would be best to avoid a captain who had 'steered the boat onto the rocks.'

Sarkozy, who is to address his first campaign rally Thursday in the eastern town of Annecy, said he would tell the French 'the truth.'

'If we want to keep our social model, our way of living,' he said, 'we must continue making changes.'