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2nd LD Writethru: Sarkozy to run for 2017 French presidential election

Xinhua, August 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday announced his candidacy for next year's presidential election.

"I have decided to be a candidate for the 2017 presidential election. I felt I had the strength to lead this battle at a troubled time in our history," Sarkozy wrote on his Twitter account.

"The coming five years are those of risk but also of hope," he added in an extract of a book "Everything for France" to be released Wednesday.

The conservative ex-head of state did not say whether he would join the Republican party primaries scheduled for November to book a ticket for the race to the Elysee Palace.

Citing a close source to Sarkozy, BFMTV news channel said he would quit the leadership of the center-right party on Monday to prepare for the presidential primaries.

Contenders for the primaries have to submit their candidacy before Sept. 9.

The winner will face a Socialist candidate and Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right National Front party.

Sarkozy, 61, failed to secure a second mandate in 2012 after losing the runoff to the Socialist leader Francois Hollande. After a two-year break from politics, he came back as leader of the crisis-hit conservative party then known as Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).

While Hollande's approval rating is at a record low, Sarkozy is betting on his political credentials and dynamism which earned him in 2007 the highest popularity ratings of any leader since Charles de Gaulle. Enditem