Sarkozy's comeback an 'act of revenge', French PM says

Valls said Sarkozy’s political ambitions were fuelled by vengeance against French President François Hollande for his defeat in the 2012 presidential election.

“He is taking revenge not only on Hollande but also against the French people who voted him out,” he told France 2 TV. “One cannot prepare for the future of a great country like France in the spirit of revenge.”

At the end of November Sarkozy was elected chairman of his centre-right UMP party, a move seen as a precursor to the 2016 primaries to choose a presidential candidate for 2017.

While criticizing the former president, Valls praised former prime minister Alain Juppé, seen as Sarkozy’s main rival in securing the nomination to be the UMP’s presidential candidate in 2017, as a “different character entirely”.

Valls, who is ahead of his boss in the opinion polls and seen as a likely Socialist presidential candidate in 2017, re-affirmed his loyalty to unpopular Hollande and insisted he would “stay the course” and remain in office until the 2017 presidential election.

“I am not a deserter,” he said. “Should I quit to prepare for a different destiny? Absolutely not.”

Insisting that he worked “in tandem” with Hollande, whose difficulties to revive France’s economy or reduce ballooning unemployment has made him the least popular president in recent times, Valls said his “greatest ambition” was to make the French “once more proud to be French”.

In the face of France’s stagnating economy, Valls said that the government’s “Responsibility Pact”, under which social charges are lowered for companies if they create more jobs, was “going to succeed”.

He said he wanted to see more shops open on Sundays in a bid to boost employment – a move that goes against France’s cultural objection to working on the traditional day off – but added that France’s much-criticised 35-hour working week was not up for negotiation.