'Speedy' Sarkozy to lead French conservatives

Known as "Speedy" for his energetic style, French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has moved closer to his dream of running for president with his election as head of the conservative UMP party.

France's most popular right-wing politician in a government that is unpopular has grabbed headlines by tackling sluggish economic growth with the same zeal he applied to a two-year crackdown on crime at the Interior Ministry.

Mr Sarkozy's election as head of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party yesterday gives him a party base from which to launch a campaign to succeed Jacques Chirac as president in an election due in 2007.

"We are going to rejuvenate French political life. It needs it," Mr Sarkozy, 49, told young supporters on Saturday night.

That can be interpreted as yet another dig at Mr Chirac, who celebrates his 72nd birthday today. Although both men have done their best to dispel rumours of tension, Mr Sarkozy and Mr Chirac look set for a prolonged period of rivalry.

Mr Chirac has yet to say whether he will run for a third term in 2007, but he is likely to try to stop Mr Sarkozy stealing his thunder in his own party. Mr Sarkozy also says he has yet to decide whether the time will be ripe for a bid as soon as 2007.

Mr Chirac already has imposed one condition - that Mr Sarkozy quit his job as finance minister in exchange for taking the reins of the UMP. Mr Sarkozy plans to step down today.

Even leaving the government was unlikely to dampen the ambition of the tireless Sarkozy, who has pledged to inject the party with new ideas and says he is ready for any controversy.

"I am ready for it. When you have an ambitious goal, it is normal that you should be the first target for attack," he said.

The son of a Hungarian who emigrated to Paris after World War Two, he preaches classic conservatism and has a record of cutting taxes but lays claim to a pragmatism free of ideology.

As budget minister under Prime Minister Edouard Balladur in the early 1990s, Mr Sarkozy oversaw substantial income tax cuts and remains a staunch advocate of further reducing the tax burden.

In 2002, he discreetly pressed his claim to the post of prime minister but Mr Chirac chose the little-known provincial senator Jean-Pierre Raffarin and gave Mr Sarkozy the less glamorous job of interior minister.

While Mr Raffarin has seen his popularity dive, Mr Sarkozy's ratings soared as he launched a high-profile crackdown on crime.

He followed this up as finance minister with populist economic measures such as negotiating with retailers a cut in the price of supermarket goods, even as he promised France's European partners to trim its bloated public deficit.

Questions remain over his relations with the president, damaged by Mr Sarkozy's support for Mr Balladur when he ran as a rival to Mr Chirac in the 1995 presidency race. Mr Chirac is believed to have seen that as treachery on the part of a protege.

Mr Sarkozy has also ruffled feathers in Germany with his tough defence of French industry, and upset some of his European partners with what they saw as go-it-alone policies. Mr Sarkozy's gung-ho leadership style and habit of criss-crossing the country in public appearances could cause further friction with Mr Chirac, who prefers to run national affairs from a lofty distance.

Mr Sarkozy's first elected office was as mayor of the chic inner Paris suburb of Neuilly from 1983. He held various posts within Mr Chirac's old RPR party and played a leading role in the 2002 election landslide win of Mr Chirac's new UMP party.

Born in Paris on January 28, 1955, Mr Sarkozy has two sons. His wife Cecilia has taken an increasingly prominent role at his side, prompting speculation she has her own political ambitions.