Free Republic

Outgoing French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has been confirmed as the new head of President Jacques Chirac's governing UMP party. He replaces Mr Chirac's ally, Alain Juppe, who was found guilty in a party financing scandal. Mr Sarkozy is widely expected to use the post to build up support for a presidential run in 2007 against Mr Chirac, his former mentor. He won the party leadership ballot comfortably, with 85% of the vote. The 49-year-old, seen as one of France's most popular politicians, will give up his ministerial post on Monday to take up the party chairman post. Mr Sarkozy's...

PARIS, Nov. 17 (Xinhuabet) -- With the creation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) on Sunday, the French center-right politicians made a historic merger and formed a single broad union backing President Jacques Chirac to govern the country in at least the next five years. The new UMP replaces the Union for the Presidential Majority (also UMP) set up on April 23 -- two days after Chirac's victory in the first round of presidential election. Both are a coalition of representatives of the three rivaling conservative tendencies: the Chirac-led Rally for the Republic (RPR), the Liberal Democracy (DL)...