Republicans in name aussi

NEW parties are constantly sprouting up in Europe’s fertile political landscape. It is more unusual to find established parties taking on new names. Yet this is what Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, plans to do at a rally in Paris this weekend. As part of his bid to run again for the presidency in 2017, the irrepressible leader of the centre-right UMP is rebranding the party Les Républicains (The Republicans).

Mr Sarkozy’s party makeover is part of an improbable political comeback, an effort to reinvent himself as a fresh force. When the ex-president returned last year from the shortest political retirement in recent history, taking over a party tainted by in-fighting and financing scandals, he wanted a clean break. He overhauled the top jobs and promised a primary to select a presidential candidate. And he picked a new name and logo. These go to a vote of party members on May 28th-29th.

The new name is not to everybody’s taste. Some find it baffling that a party descended from Charles de Gaulle, who marked his distance from the United States and pulled France out of NATO’s integrated military command, should go for a name with an American flavour. It was proof, sniffed Florian Philippot, deputy leader of the populist National Front (FN), that Mr Sarkozy, who had close ties to George Bush when in office, was “totally subservient to Washington”.

The Atlanticist Mr Sarkozy dismisses such concerns. For one thing, the French right has undergone numerous reinventions under the Fifth Republic, from the Rally of the French People (RPF) under de Gaulle, to the Rally for the Republic (RPR) under Jacques Chirac, another former president. The acronym UMP itself is only 13 years old.

For another, Mr Sarkozy hopes that the new name will refresh the right and undermine his rivals at a time when identity politics is on the rise in France. The concept of republican values—a belief in liberty, secularism and meritocracy under a strong French republic—appeals widely. Indeed, it is partly a swipe at the left, which grumbles that Mr Sarkozy is stealing a term that belongs to all. A judicial attempt by left-wing groups to prevent his using the word “republicans” was dismissed by a Paris court just days before the party voted. “The republic is a common good,” complained Christian Paul, a Socialist deputy. “It shouldn’t be appropriated.” Mr Sarkozy has the FN in his sights too. Since the phrase “republican values” is often used as a byword for resisting the challenge of radical Islam, the new name may speak to those tempted by the far right.

Even if the relaunch succeeds, however, Mr Sarkozy will have his work cut out. He faces a number of outstanding judicial investigations. And securing the party’s nomination for 2017 will not be a shoo-in. Most polls suggest that Alain Juppé, a patrician former prime minister who appeals to the centre, is his closest rival. One poll even suggests that Mr Juppé would beat him in a run-off. Others make Mr Sarkozy the favourite. But there is much guesswork at this point, since the vote will be open to all supporters of the centre-right.

For now, Mr Juppé remains the Paris establishment’s favourite. Having backed Mr Sarkozy in 2007, business and the conservative elite then tired of the hyperactive former president. But they are not representative of the party. It is Mr Sarkozy who gets flag-waving party members in the regions going, and fills up municipal halls. The higher the turnout, the greater his chances. Besides, the elite’s disdain may be to his advantage. Mr Sarkozy may have hobnobbed with world leaders, and earned big money from lecture tours in the Gulf—but he loves nothing better than playing the role of outsider, sneered at in the parquet-floored salons of Paris.