France, February 19: Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has revved up his campaign for the 2012 presidential election with a scathing criticism of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s style of government.
De Villepin described the debates about France’s national identity and the Roma as false and questioned Sarkozy’s other domestic initiatives, the media correspondent in Paris reported on Friday.
“I’ve heard the president talking about imams, Islam in France, mosques, praying in the streets, but we have the solutions right here. We don’t need to open another debate about secularism. We don’t have enough mosques in France so let’s build some more,” de Villepin said.
The former prime minister was equally forthright about the failure to formulate a responsible stance on recent developments in the Middle East.
“I believe it is the reason for so much frustration, the profound sense of injustice and it will bring more violence if we do nothing,” de Villepin added.
De Villepin, who has unofficially started his election campaign, also welcomed the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and said France has a responsibility to help them with their development.
Some political analysts see him as more statesmanlike than Sarkozy.
In a recent opinion poll, 31 percent of the respondents said they thought de Villepin was the best person to lead the right wing in France.
He has formed a new political party from scratch, Republique Solidaire, and expects to steal votes from Sarkozy and the right wing in next year’s general elections.
—-Agencies