 |
 French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told a news conference on 28 June that he had “no presidential ambitions".
M. de Villepin had been seen as the frontrunner to succeed President Jacques Chirac, who will step down in April 2007, but M. de Villepin’s year-long premiership has been buffeted by riots, protests and scandals, and there have been several calls for his resignation.
If M. de Villepin does not stand as a presidential candidate, his rival Nicolas Sarkozy, who is the interior minister, is most likely to be the candidate of the ruling Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP) party.
29 June 2006
|
|
