Chirac, at Last, Backs Sarkozy in French Presidential Election

PARIS, March 21 — Setting aside his personal feelings for the sake of his party, Jacques Chirac on Wednesday endorsed his longtime younger rival, Nicolas Sarkozy, as the person best suited to succeed him as president of France.

The long-awaited endorsement came without fanfare, passion or enthusiasm. The two men did not appear together at Élysée Palace or on a campaign podium.

Instead, Mr. Chirac announced his decision in a short televised statement from the palace after meeting with Mr. Sarkozy. Mr. Chirac portrayed it in terms of loyalty to the governing party, which he founded in 2002 — the Union for a Popular Movement, known by its French acronym, UMP — not as a personal embrace of the candidate.

“Five years ago, I called for the creation of the UMP to allow France to pursue a rigorous policy of modernization in the long term,” he said. “In all its diversity, this political movement chose to support the candidacy of Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential election, because of his qualities. So it is very natural that I will bring him my vote and my support.”

The president also announced that Mr. Sarkozy would step down as interior minister on Monday to devote himself exclusively to the campaign. In his meeting with Mr. Sarkozy on Wednesday, Mr. Chirac said, he took “the opportunity to salute his work, his commitment, his results at the Interior Ministry.”

The endorsement gives new momentum to Mr. Sarkozy, who leads a pack of 12 candidates in opinion polls for the first round of the two-round election that begins on April 22.

But the race is wide open, and opinion surveys indicate that François Bayrou, the head of a tiny centrist party, the Union for French Democracy, would edge out either Mr. Sarkozy or the Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal, in the runoff vote slated for May 6.

In addition, according to a telephone survey by the LH2 polling institute carried out Friday and Saturday and released Monday for RMC radio, 52 percent of French voters are still undecided, and that percentage seems to be rising.

Mr. Chirac and Mr. Sarkozy represent competing visions for France’s future. Mr. Chirac is a staunch conservative in the Gaullist tradition who believes that France and Germany should be the de facto leaders of a strong Europe that should counterbalance American power. Mr. Sarkozy is more enamored of the United States and less interested in the traditional French-German axis.

At home, Mr. Chirac has been protective of the generous and costly French social model. He emphasizes inclusiveness and the integration of the nation’s large Muslim and immigrant population into French society.

Mr. Sarkozy, by contrast, has often portrayed himself as a political outsider and has called for a “rupture” with the policies of his government, which he says have inhibited job creation and productivity. Recently he has toned down those remarks, but his proposal to create a Ministry of Immigration and National Identity has opened him to criticism for courting the anti-immigration vote.

Certainly, Mr. Chirac’s support does Mr. Sarkozy no damage. Even though there was virtually no popular support for a third presidential term for Mr. Chirac, he brings his status as an elder statesman to the Sarkozy campaign.

In fact, Mr. Chirac’s approval rating is rising. According to a CSA-La Vie-France Info poll to be released on Thursday, 48 percent of those surveyed by telephone said they had confidence in Mr. Chirac, compared with 26 percent after demonstrations last May against a proposed revision of the labor law.

Mr. Sarkozy already enjoys the support of the president’s other loyal lieutenants, including Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and two former prime ministers, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Alain Juppé.

Mr. Sarkozy earned widespread distrust for his description of young troublemakers in the country’s grimy suburbs as “scum” and his subsequent handling of the nightly clashes there late in 2005. As a result, recent polls suggest that he is still feared by many French voters.

In supporting Mr. Sarkozy, Mr. Chirac may be motivated in part by self-interest. When he leaves office in May, he loses the presidential immunity from prosecution. He could face legal action — or at least the threat of it — over allegations that he was involved in a kickback scheme when he was mayor of Paris.

Mr. Chirac has denounced the allegations as “lies, calumny and manipulation.” He may be less likely to face prosecution or questioning if his party retains the presidency and a majority in the National Assembly, which faces elections in June.