Former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP party won the first round of local elections in France on Sunday in what could be his first success in a long and likely turbulent campaign to reclaim the presidency in 2017.
“He can now claim that he led a successful campaign as the president of a new UMP,” Jean Garrigues, a French political historian and analyst told FRANCE 24. It is a feat neither of his main rivals within the UMP, former prime ministers François Fillon and Alain Juppé, can match. comments to taglines82@gmail.com
