Francois Bayrou candidate of president in France

Francois Bayrou said on Thursday he would run for president in next year’s election, a move that could eat into conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy’s voter base.

Bayrou, a former education minister who ran for the presidency in 2002 and 2007 for the centrists, had widely been expected to stand, but had said he would officially launch his candidacy at the start of December.

“I will be a candidate in the presidential election because I really think the country needs a new start and we can’t carry on like this for another five years,” he told TF1 television’s evening news programme.

Although he remains an outsider in the contest, he could poach valuable votes from more moderate supporters of Sarkozy’s ruling UMP Party, disappointed with the president’s hardline conservative stance on security and immigration, france24.com reports.