PARIS — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday called on voters to “respond to Emmanuel Macron’s rallying call” and vote for him in the second round of France’s presidential election.
“I will vote for Emmanuel Macron because I believe that he has all the necessary experience when it comes to a serious international crisis and one that is more complex than ever,” Sarkozy said in a message on his Facebook page. “He is, in the current state of things, the only one who can act.”
Sarkozy had not backed any candidate — including the one from his own Les Républicains party, Valérie Pecresse — during the first-round campaign, but broke his silence two days after National Rally leader Marine Le Pen qualified for the second round against Macron on April 24.
Last month, Sarkozy did not show up at Pécresse’s first big rally of the campaign in Paris. She won just 4.8 percent of the vote on Sunday (in the 2017 election, François Fillon won 20.1 percent).
Sarkozy made clear in his message that he was responding to Macron’s call during his victory speech on Sunday to “rally in a great movement of unity and action,” and hinted at a potential revamp of the conservative party, which has dominated French politics for decades. “A new time is in front of us,” Sarkozy said. “It will require profound changes. We will have to get out of habits and partisanship.”
The former president said on Tuesday that “the importance of upcoming decisions” had forced him to speak out.
“We never fail when we choose clarity and consistency,” he added.
