Party comrade launches battle against Sarkozy

With his announcement that he will form a new political party, former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin is taking aim at the presidency. In so doing he could well prevent his erstwhile party colleague Nicolas Sarkozy from being re-elected in 2012, writes the daily Der Standard: "Villepin is seen to have even less chance of winning the next presidential elections than Sarkozy. Most French people seem to wonder whether the lyrical pseudo-aristocrat and Napoleon fan isn't out of place in the 21st century. Be that as it may, what he does have is the potential to really make life difficult for Sarkozy. The mutual hatred between the two is so overwhelming that Villepin can - and will - destabilise the current president. Inter-party rivalry can be murderous among the French Right: In 1981 Jacques Chirac could barely disguise his desire that François Mitterrand would win the second ballot to put his conservative rival Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in his place. Villepin can hardly beat Sarkozy but he can help the Socialists' candidate to victory."

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