Villepin forms party to challenge Sarkozy

PARIS, March 25 (UPI) -- Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin says he has formed a new political party to challenge rival Nicolas Sarkozy in the next presidential race.

The unnamed center-right party, which Villepin said Thursday would be "independent and open to anyone,"will reflect "a change in politics" from what he said was Sarkozy's bias toward the rich.

Sarkozy is up for re-election in 2012.

Villepin, France's prime minister under President Jacques Chirac from 2005 to 2007, has suggested Sarkozy governs like a monarch with an "imperial rule."

In announcing the new party, which will be officially introduced June 19, Villepin called for an end to a cap on taxes, introduced after Sarkozy's 2007 election, and for greater redistribution of wealth, Radio France Internationale reported.

"My campaign slogan is a republic of solidarity," he said, acknowledging he was still a member of Sarkozy's ruling Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, party.

Villepin, a career diplomat cleared in January of running an alleged smear campaign against Sarkozy, also said he wanted to stop political interference in judicial affairs.