Scandal-prone Sarkozy takes steps toward presidency

The center-right led by former French President Nicholas Sarkozy has returned to the political arena winning a sweeping majority in local council elections. The local elections show Sarkozy's fast return to French politics, aiming for the presidency once again in 2017.

The local elections are seen as a major blow to Hollande's Socialist Party. The center-right party Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) gained over 66 to 70 out of the 98 local departments. The Socialist Party took up to 35, losing more than half of the departments it held before the election. In the first round of voting on March 22, the UMP took first place with 32.5 percent of the vote while the National Front came second with 25.4 percent.

"This result goes beyond local considerations. The French have massively rejected the policies of François Hollande and his government," Sarkozy said at UMP party headquarters in Paris shortly after polls closed on Sunday. "The time for change is now," he added.

With his feet firmly on the center-right, whether Sarkozy's return to the political mainstream brings fresh air to French politics is a matter of concern. The scandal-ridden ex-president ruled out any return to frontline politics after his defeat in 2012 presidential election. However, he kept his promise only for two years. He secured UMP leadership in a party poll held on November 29, 2014. Even though six out of 10 French voters disapprove of his return to power, as the polls suggested, he has already become a major political figure once again.

Sarkozy inherited a risky situation in which many significant problems remain regarding the country's stagnant economy and mounting unemployment rate. Since Hollande's presidency, which began in 2012, the French economy has been suffering from a total halt as it displayed zero growth for the second consecutive quarter in August 2014. A majority of French citizens do not approve of Hollande's "stewardship of the economy" due to the continuing socioeconomic crisis that France has been suffering from for so long, according to French opinion polls.

Sarkozy has been widely known for his many scandals and criticized for his celebrity lifestyle with his marriage with the former top model Carla Bruni. In 2014, he was held under police custody for 15 hours on suspicion of trying to influence senior judges.

Sarkozy would have to deal with the immobile, inactive French presidency through a more assertive governing style than the incumbent, Hollande, has displayed to so far. The number of disenchanted people has been gradually increasing due to Hollande's mediocre presidency, which has often been synonymous with immobility and unassertiveness.

A couple of months after Hollande became president, the Socialist Party government's popularity was already at stake. Taking the last local elections into account, the defeat was not a surprise for Hollande's government.

The rise of the ideological right in French politics shows an increasing disenchantment among French people with government policies toward currency and debt crises, recession and austerity, which has led many to adopt far-right views. The growing hatred directed at Muslims and immigrants, further fueled by the deadly attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, have received significant support from French people leaning toward far-right populism.