Sarkozy renames French opposition
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has changed his party's name from Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) to The Republicans, the BBC reports.
Members of France's main opposition party voted to support the rebranding on Friday, with 83% of members approving the move.
The move has sparked widespread debate in France, with critics arguing that all French people are Republicans.
Mr Sarkozy is widely expected to try for the presidency again in 2017.
According to one opinion poll, almost 70% of the public - and 40% of UMP supporters - said that no political party had the right to use the Republican label.
In an editorial in Le Monde (in French), a group of three writers and politicians said: "For Nicolas Sarkozy to name his party in such a way that pretends to represent all Republicans, as though there is no-one else apart from him, is insulting and irresponsible."