Nicolas Sarkozy has won the leadership of the centre-right UMP party, in a victory widely seen as a first step in a plan to return to the French presidency in 2017. The 59-year-old former president, who announced his political comeback in September after two years in the wings, claimed 64.5 per cent of the votes […]
Lightning strikes Hollande’s plane on way to Berlin
There’s a metaphor in here somewhere: As spanking-new French President Francois Hollande headed to Germany on Tuesday for a possibly contentious meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss how to save the Eurozone, his plane was struck by lightning.
Sarkozy makes impassioned plea for votes
Nicolas Sarkozy mounted a defiant show of force in Paris on Tuesday, wresting the spotlight from traditional trade union May Day marches and vowing to fight to the last against François Hollande, his socialist challenger in Sunday’s presidential election.
Sarkozy threatens to sue over alleged Libyan financial support
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday said he would file a law suit against news website Mediapart, over allegations by the news portal that the incumbent president received financial support from Libya during his presidential campaign five years ago. Speaking to the state-run France 2 TV channel, Sarkozy, who is fighting for his political life
France goes to the polls
France is voting in the first round of a presidential election expected to show a groundswell of support for the far left and extreme right. Nicolas Sarkozy, seeking a second five-year term in the Elysée palace, spent the final days of a bitter campaign insisting he could overhaul
It’s a baby girl! but Sarkozy misses the action
French first lady Carla Bruni gave birth to a baby girl on Wednesday, French media reported, her first child with husband President Nicolas Sarkozy and the first baby born to a French presidential couple in office.
Strauss-Kahn’s allies cheer his release from house arrest
Political life in France was once again upended as former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest Friday in New York, a development that fascinated the French public but left both supporters and rivals unsure of the impact on the presidential race.
Sarkozy’s father says Carla Bruni is pregnant
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s father was quoted by a German newspaper on Tuesday as saying that first lady Carla Bruni is expecting a child, apparently confirming the subject of weeks of speculation.
Sarkozy: Peace talks soon or Palestinian state
French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will support a unilateral declaration of Palestinian independence if peace talks with Israel don’t restart by September, dealing a tough setback to Israel’s campaign to isolate the incoming Palestinian unity government.
Analysis: Syria poses new dilemma for France’s Sarkozy
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has stolen the international limelight with his bravura intervention in Libya but he may find it trickier to deal with the gathering crisis in Syria. It was Sarkozy after all who ended Syria’s international isolation when he feted President Bashar al-Assad in a visit to Paris in 2008.