French ex-President Sarkozy renames his party

PanARMENIAN.Net - Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has changed his party's name from Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) to The Republicans, BBC News reports.

Members of France's main opposition party voted to support the rebranding on Friday, May 29, with 83% approving the move.

The move has sparked widespread debate in France, with critics arguing that all French people are Republicans.

Sarkozy is widely expected to try for the presidency again in 2017.

According to one opinion poll, almost 70% of the public - and 40% of UMP supporters - said that no political party had the right to use the Republican label.

In an editorial in Le Monde (in French), a group of three writers and politicians said: "For Nicolas Sarkozy to name his party in such a way that pretends to represent all Republicans, as though there is no-one else apart from him, is insulting and irresponsible."

Left-wing sympathisers had challenged the plan in court, arguing that - thanks to the French Revolution - every citizen of France is a Republican, not just those who vote for Sarkozy, the BBC says.

However, the court rejected their call for a ban.

Sarkozy says that the rebranding was a "rallying call to all who are distressed to see the Republic decline day after day and who want to stop this decline".