France’s right-wing former president Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday he would vote for centrist Emmanuel Macron in the second round of presidential elections against far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
“We must abandon our partisan habits… Allegiance to right-wing republican values and our culture of government must lead us to respond to Emmanuel Macron’s call for unity,” he said.
The statement came just days after Sarkozy’s own conservative Republican party candidate, whom he had publicly refused to endorse, was eliminated in the first round of elections.
Candidate Valerie Pecresse won just 4.8 percent in Sunday’s vote. This puts Republicans in dire financial straits because they failed to reach the 5 percent threshold above which the state reimburses campaign expenses.
On Monday, Pecresse made an urgent appeal for donations to ensure his party’s survival, saying he had personally racked up five million euros ($5.5 million) in campaign debt.