According to the Nouvel Observateur, Chirac could still possibly run for president:
A l'idée que Jacques Chirac pourrait siéger au Conseil constitutionnel - avec Giscard! - la voilà remontée à nouveau. "Oui, il ira. Dans cinq ans !" Et elle répète: "Vous m'entendez. Dans cinq ans"... On ne saurait être plus clair. At the idea that Jacques Chirac could take his place at the Constitutional Council [as a former president] -- with Giscard [d'Estaing]! -- [his wife, Bernadette] braces up again. "Sure he will. In five years!" And she repeats: "You hear me? In five years."... One couldn't be more clear.
Seriously? Does septuagenarian Chirac despise Sarkozy so much that he would go through the trouble of running for president (with no chances of winning, I gather) just to sabotage Sarkozy's chances? Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
But as Blair is demonstrating every day, saying good-bye seems difficult for these people.
There's a lot of kite-flying around Alliot-Marie and Villepin etc. Sarkozy has more enemies on his own side than Royal on hers.
As I suggested in the first primary thread, Sarkozy was hoping the PS process would drag on and become embittered, weakening Royal in public opinion.
He now has a reply from Socialist party members.
