PARIS
Former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe has announced his intention to run for the country‘s presidency in 2017.
Juppe, 69, made the announcement on his blog, saying he would seek the nomination of his center-right party to take part in "the great task of building the France of the future."
The former prime minister explained that he wants to "address the questions that haunt the French."
Juppe, prime minister under Jacques Chirac between 1995 and 1997 and the mayor of the western city of Bordeaux, was convicted in 2004 in an illegal party-funding scheme while he served as finance director at Paris City Hall during Chirac's tenure as mayor.
He also received a 14-month suspended prison sentence on appeal, down from the original 18 months, and was barred from elected office for a year, instead of the potentially career-ending 10-year ban handed down at the first trial.
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