When Nicolas Sarkozy went fishing for votes in the electoral waters of France’s far right for a second presidential term in 2012 it ended in defeat, as voters alienated by his rhetoric and disappointed by a moribund economy deserted him.

Fast forward four years and the conservative is banking on a change in mood.

Islamist attacks on French soil have killed some 230 people since January, 2015. Europe’s migrant crisis has exacerbated concerns about immigration and fuelled the rise of far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen.

An Ifop poll in July showed security trumping unemployment as the hot-button issue of the 2017 race despite an economic malaise and Sarkozy’s comeback bid pitches him as a president who would be tough on security and immigration.

In a new book entitled “Everything for France”, to be published on Wednesday, Sarkozy courts National Front voters with a promise to limit the right to French nationality of children born to immigrants.

He pledges to suspend the right of immigrants to bring immediate family members to live in France until the European Union draws up what he says is a coherent immigration policy. And he vows to “drastically reduce” the number of migrants France accepts and end economic migration within five years.

By promising to ban the Muslim head scarf from universities and public companies he furthermore presents himself as an energetic defender of the secular state that is a key part of France’s identity.

Sarkozy said France’s biggest battle would be how “to defend our lifestyle without giving into the temptation of cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world,” a veiled reference to British voters’ decision in June to leave the European Union – in part due to concerns over immigration.

CHANGING CAMPAIGN

The Nice attack on crowds celebrating the Bastille Day national holiday and the murder of a Catholic priest in a Normandy Church have shifted the focus of the campaign away from the economy and towards Sarkozy’s strongest suit, said Frederic Dabi at pollster IFOP.

At the turn of the year, opinion polls showed him well behind Alain Juppe, a mainstream conservative and his principal rival for the Republicains nomination, both among party supporters and the centre-right more broadly.

Now, Sarkozy leads Juppe by 63 percent to Juppe’s 36 percent among the party faithful, an Elabe poll showed on Tuesday. However the primary is open to any voter who pays 2 euros (dollars) and signs a pledge that they agree with the “values of the right and centre”.

That wider constituency favours Juppe. The Elabe poll gave him 53 percent support to Sarkozy’s 46 percent, underscoring the challenge facing the one-time interior minister.

“Sarkozy is in the stronger position, even if – for now – Juppe remains ahead in voter support,” said Dabi. “The primary race on the right will be somewhat hardline in tone. That doesn’t have to mean that Juppe fails.”

“NOT SEEKING REVENGE”

Monday’s comeback announcement was vintage Sarkozy: drawing parallels between the challenges awaiting the next president with those that confronted war-time hero Charles de Gaulle, the architect of France’s current political system.

In his first term, Sarkozy’s high-energy style and abrasive manner polarised voters, while his modest attempts at tax and labour market reform and limited success fostering job creation disenchanted both free-marketeers and leftist voters whom he had also assiduously courted to win election.

After his May 2012 defeat to Francois Hollande, Sarkozy promised to quit politics altogether, but returned to the fray in September 2014 citing the need to rescue France from what he described as the socialist’s catastrophic presidency.

“I am not seeking revenge, I have no egotistical score to settle,” Sarkozy said on social media on Monday as he announced his bid.

While Juppe has kept a low profile over the summer — campaigning for the primary in November is expected to hot up in the days ahead. Juppe holds a rally outside Paris this weekend.

Sarkozy’s leftist opponents, meanwhile, have been swift to attack the former president’s social policies.

“This policy platform is a platform for the division of French people, not their coming together,” Socialist lawmaker Jean-Marie Le Guen told Europe 1 radio.

Le Guen said Sarkozy’s economic platform would favour the wealthy. Sarkozy’s friendships with the rich, powerful and the world of showbiz earned him the nickname “President Bling Bling” and caused widespread distaste on the left but also in some conservative circles.

Knife-wielding attackers interrupted a church service in France, forced the priest to his knees and slit his throat on Tuesday, an attack that President Francois Hollande said showed the threat from Islamist militancy was greater than ever.

Police shot and killed the attackers as they emerged from the church, freeing three hostages, one of whom was seriously wounded.

The knifemen arrived during morning mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, northwest of Paris, where the 85-year-old parish priest Father Jacques Hamel was leading prayers.

“They forced him to his knees and he tried to defend himself and that’s when the drama began,” Sister Danielle, who escaped as the attackers slayed the priest, told RMC radio.

“They filmed themselves. It was like a sermon in Arabic around the altar,” the nun said.

Speaking at the scene, Hollande called it a “dreadful terrorist attack,” adding that the attackers had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the militant group that he said had declared war on France.

News agency Amaq, which is affiliated with Islamic State, said two of its “soldiers” had carried out the attack. Police said one person had been arrested.

Tuesday’s attack came less than two weeks after a Tunisian ploughed a truck into a crowd in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people. Islamic State claimed that attack.

France is a major partner in the U.S.-led military coalition bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria. The White House condemned Tuesday’s attack and commended the French police’s “quick and decisive response.”

Several French media reported that one of the assailants was a local who had spent a year in jail on his return from Turkey after being intercepted trying to travel to Syria, but had been freed on bail with an electronic tag pending trial for terrorism offences.

The prosecutor’s office said the identification of the two suspects was still under way.

MERCILESS

A horrified local resident, Cecile Lefebre, said: “I have no words. How do you arrive at this point, killing people in cold blood like this? It’s pure barbarity.”

Since the Bastille Day mass murder in Nice, there has been a spate of attacks in Germany, some of which appear to be Islamist-inspired.

“In the face of this threat that has never been greater in France and Europe, the government is absolutely determined (to defeat) terrorism,” Hollande said in a televised address.

But former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected to enter a conservative primary for next year’s presidential election, accused the Socialist government of being soft.

“We must be merciless,” Sarkozy said in a statement to reporters. “The legal quibbling, precautions and pretexts for insufficient action are not acceptable. I demand that the government implement without delay the proposals we presented months ago. There is no more time to be wasted.”

The centre-right opposition wants all Islamist suspects to be either held in detention or electronically tagged to avert potential attacks.

Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is also expected to run for the presidency, said both Sarkozy’s and Hollande’s parties had failed on security.

“All those who have governed us for 30 years bear an immense responsibility. It’s revolting to watch them bickering!” she tweeted.

Hollande said France should “use all its means” within the law to fight Islamic State.

Pope Francis condemned what he called a “barbarous killing”.

“The fact that this episode took place in a church, killing a priest, a minister of the Lord and involving the faithful, is something that affects us profoundly,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

In a telephone call with the pope, Hollande expressed “the sorrow of all French people after the heinous murder of Father Jacques Hamel by two terrorists,” and said everything would be done to protect places of worship, the presidential palace said.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former conservative prime minister who now heads the Senate’s foreign affairs committee tweeted: “Everything is being done to trigger a war of religions.”

Little is known about the perpetrator and more information will no doubt, come to light. Many of us have visited the Promenade des Anglais in Nice and have celebrated the fireworks show which makes up part of the celebrations. This attack brings home how terrorism affects all our lives, but yesterday evening, it directly affected hundreds of families who have lost loved ones just trying to celebrate their country and its heritage.

We hope that communities may come together and re-enforce the very values that were being celebrated in France. Equality, liberty and fraternity underpin all that we regard as being central to our societies and communities and this means that we cannot allow extremists and terrorists to divide us. When we grieve for those who have died and suffered in Nice, we must honour them by holding onto these values and cherishing them, whilst we redouble our efforts against extremism and terrorism.

Our thoughts are with those in France and those in Iraq, Turkey and the many countries that have been affected by terrorism. Their lives matters and their memories will remain alive when we think of those three words – ‘Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite.‘