French President of Les Hauts de France region and candidate for the 2022 French presidential election Xavier Bertrand poses before the news broadcast of TF1 TV channel in Paris October 11, 2021. — AFP pic
PARIS, Oct 12 — French former minister Xavier Bertrand said Monday he will seek be the presidential candidate of the right-wing Republicans party in next year’s elections, where he would aim to unseat Emmanual Macron.
The field is becoming increasingly crowded to take on Macron — who has yet to formally declare he will run for a second term — but Bertrand is polling higher than any of his party stable-mates.
Bertrand told TF1 television that he would take part in the party’s congress in December, where The Republicans will choose its presidential candidate.
“It’s the only way to get a candidate from the right and from the centre as quickly as possible,” he said.
Bertrand, who served as a minister during the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, was the first to declare his candidacy for the presidency after a strong showing in regional elections last March.
But for months he kept people guessing as to whether he would seek the nomination for the party he left in 2017, or go it alone.
“I want to unite all French people, so I have to start with my political family,” he said Monday.
He wanted to win the presidency by uniting the right and centre of politics, he added.
Whoever wins the party’s nomination, the candidate will have to reinvigorate a party which sees itself as the guardian of the values of postwar leader Charles de Gaulle.
It is still trying to recover from the disastrous 2017 candidacy of former prime minister Francois Fillon, who was felled by a graft scandal for which he was later convicted.
Sarkozy, France’s last right-wing president, remains popular among some of the Republicans faithful.
But Sarkozy has twice been convicted for corruption this year for events dating back to his presidency. — AFPf