(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Former prime minister Alain Juppe joined the race to be the presidential candidate of France's centre-right yesterday, posing a potential challenge both to a 2017 comeback bid by Nicolas Sarkozy and to the rise of the extreme right. Juppe's declaration on his Internet blog also came as Socialist President Francois Hollande's government returned from its summer break to a stalled economy and an opinion poll showing more than eight out of 10 voters have no confidence in its ability to fix it. "(We must) rally right from the first round (of the presidential election) the forces right and centre around a candidate who can face up to the National Front on the one side and the Socialist Party on the other," his blog said. "If we are divided, the outcome of the first round will be uncertain and the consequences of the second round unpredictable," said Juppe, whose Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) has been dogged by internal divisions.
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