French President May Make a Bid For a Third Term
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
PARIS — President Chirac may seek a third term, putting him on a collision course with the leading candidate of the governing party, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, a Sarkozy adviser says.
“He’d like to run,” a former Chirac cabinet minister, Patrick Devedjian, said in an interview in Paris yesterday. “Jacques Chirac can hope to be in position if his popularity rebounds.”
A challenge may hurt Mr. Sarkozy’s chances in the first round of elections and, if he survives, in a runoff. Their relationship has been strained since 1995 when Mr. Sarkozy backed Mr. Chirac rival Edouard Balladur for the presidency.
