Sarkozy calls for UMP unity after narrow victory in
leadership contest
French opposition
party supporters in record turnout but under 65% give ex-president mandate for
2017 election
Kim Willsher in Paris
The Guardian, Sunday 30 November 2014 / http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/30/sarkozy-narrow-victory-ump-leadership
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy
promised a new era for France
Speaking on television, he called for unity
among the various factions that have weakened the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) since he lost the
presidential election to the Socialist François Hollande in 2012.
Sarkozy said: “My ambition is to create a
modern party where the members can have their say. My red line is unity of all
because of the situation France
He added: “I will gather a team that
represents all of our movement. I want to offer the French something different
from the humiliation today of François Hollande, and the humiliation tomorrow
of Madame [Marine] Le Pen.
“We have to give the French a future, new
ideas...”
He said the economy was dire, immigration
“out of control” and the education system “broken down”.
Sarkozy, 59, had been tipped to win the
leadership vote and indeed gained a clear majority, which avoided the
humiliation of a second round of polling. But it was not the landslide victory
he had hoped would crush dissent and leave rivals for the 2017 presidential
race standing. His nearest rival, the former agriculture minister Bruno Le
Maire, polled 29.18%, a score that will reduce Sarkozy’s room for manoeuvre in
the party, which he intends to use as a launch pad for a second term in the
Elysée.
Alain Juppé, the former prime minister who
is expected to stand against Sarkozy in the UMP presidential primaries planned
for 2016, was photographed smiling broadly after learning that Sarkozy had
obtained just 64.5% of votes from party members, despite a record turnout. This
was well below the 85% Sarkozy obtained in the 2004 leadership vote.
Juppé denied any schadenfreude, saying: “I
am happy the elections went well. It was a clean win [for Sarkozy]. I’m
obviously pleased the UMP can now close the scars of the previous [leadership]
election.”
Later he added: “It’s now up to him to give
the UMP the elan it needs and for that he will have to unify. He needs to
appease the very clear tensions. It’s not through internal conflict that things
will move forward so he has to take the initiative.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/29/nicolas-sarkozy-ump-party-leadership-elected
Another former UMP minister, Benoist Apparu, told France Info radio that party
members had not given Sarkozy a ringing endorsement to do what he wants.
“Having said that, 65% is a good result. He
was elected in a clean and flawless way ... but he does not have a blank
cheque,” he said.
Sarkozy was first elected UMP leader in
November 2004 and went on to win the 2007 presidential election.
Political analysts pointed out it was the
first time Nicolas Sarkozy had faced opposition within his own party.
On his Facebook account, Sarkozy wrote:
“Dear friends, I’d liked to thank all the UMP party members who have done me
the honour of electing me to lead our political family. Their turnout,
unprecedented in the history of our movement, is the best response to two years
of internal quarrels and divisions. This campaign has been dignified. I salute,
in the name of all party members, Bruno Le Maire and Hervé Mariton who took
part in this debate with conviction and respect.”
He added: “Now the time has come for action.”
Party chiefs hope the election will mark a
new start for the UMP. A leadership vote in September 2012, after Sarkozy lost
and disappeared – temporarily – from public life, imploded into allegations of
vote rigging and fraud, and ended with the installing of a temporary
“collegiate” team to run the party.
The UMP is mired in a corruption inquiry
over allegations that false bills were used to hide the true cost of Sarkozy’s
2012 campaign. Sarkozy is also officially under investigation as part of a corruption
and misuse of power inquiry. He has always denied any wrongdoing.
Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, a former UMP
minister in Sarkozy’s government, described this weekend’s election as “a
renaissance” for the party.
The UMP’s 268,300 paid-up members were
eligible to take part in the electronic vote that ran for 24 hours from Friday
evening and party officials hailed a record 58.1% participation.
A police inquiry is under way after
attempts to disrupt the party’s computer system shortly after the poll opened.
UMP election officials said its computer system had been subject to “an
external attack” aimed at making it crash that had temporarily disrupted the
vote.
Sarkozy has promised to transform the UMP
from “top to bottom”, and create a wave of centre-right unity behind him.
However, his campaign, which occasionally lurched into the far-right Front
National’s territory, was seen as divisive.
One of his first moves will be to change
the party name. The UMP started life as the Union Pour La Majorité Présidentielle
to support Jacques Chirac’s 2002 presidential re-election bid.
At the UMP headquarters in Paris
Sarkozy will also need to urgently address
the party’s finances; it is estimated to be €74m (£58.8m) in debt. Sarkozy has
ruled out sacking any of the UMP’s staff of 85, but says he will attract new
members.
In 2012 Sarkozy told journalists he would
quit political life if he was defeated in the presidential election. Announcing
his change of heart and return to the political fray in September, Sarkozy told
French television it was his duty to make a comeback: “It’s not about what I
want, it’s that I don’t have the choice”.
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