Sarkozy rouses supporters in first post-poll political appearance Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UMP president Jean-Francois Copé greet supporters outside UMP headquarters in Paris on Monday Nicolas Sarkozy was cheered by supporters as he made his first political appearance since his election defeat last year, displaying his continued dominance of France's centre-right opposition despite losing the presidency and almost bankrupting his UMP party in the process. Hundreds of UMP supporters waving banners greeted the former French president as he arrived at party headquarters in Paris on Monday for a closed-door meeting to rally legislators, local councillors and officials in the face of an acute financial crisis sparked by his election campaign spending. He told them the meeting did not mark his return to active politics, but aimed a clear barb at François Hollande, his Socialist successor, saying that the French were "suffering" and the current crisis could not be solved "by the ideology of the 20th century." The crisis has underscored the degree to which the rudderless UMP has struggled to recover from Mr Sarkozy's defeat, despite the deep unpopularity of Mr Hollande. Mr Sarkozy, who shook hands enthusiastically with the crowd as he left, had been expected to delay any return to the political front line for at least another 18 months - the next presidential election is not until 2017. But his hand was forced by a ruling last week by the constitutional council, France's highest legal body, that he had overshot campaign spending limits, including wrongly attributing party spending to presidential funds, and €11m in state subsidies must be repaid by the end of July. The ruling threw the UMP's finances into jeopardy. Mr Sarkozy told the meeting it was a "serious and unprecedented . . . threat to pluralism." The party already owes its banks €44m and has seen its state funding drop by more than a third because of its poor performance in last year's parliamentary election. It has now launched a "Sarkothon" to raise funds online, which it says has already brought in some €2m. Mr Sarkozy faces a series of other scandals, including separate legal investigations into allegations - adamantly denied by him - that he took illicit campaign funds from the regime of former Libyan dictator Muammer Gaddafi and from Liliane Bettencourt, the billionaire heiress to the L'Oréal cosmetics empire. But none of these issues has dented Mr Sarkozy's popularity with party sympathisers. A CSA poll published at the weekend showed 67 per cent of UMP supporters wanted Mr Sarkozy as their candidate in 2017. His nearest rival, his former prime minister François Fillon, scored 12 per cent. Mr Sarkozy has also risen up the national popularity polls, outscoring Mr Hollande. Sarkozy still has to define his political line: unashamed and offensively right or an alliance with moderates and centrists? That is the essential question André Bercoff, author Attempts by Mr Fillon and other aspiring successors to put the Sarkozy era behind the UMP have so far failed. A contest last November for the party presidency between Mr Fillon and Jean-Francois Copé, a former minister, ended in bitter accusations of vote-rigging, with Mr Copé taking the post only after long negotiations over a truce. The fight highlighted a deep policy split hampering the UMP, between the Fillon insistence on sticking to the centre-right and Mr Copé"s call for an "unashamed" right that directly seeks to appeal to those otherwise seduced by the growing far-right National Front. This divide has been unresolved since Mr Sarkozy tilted in the latter direction during his failed campaign last year. André Bercoff, an author of books on Mr Sarkozy, said on the news website Atlantico: "Sarkozy still has to define his political line: unashamed and offensively right or an alliance with moderates and centrists? That is the essential question. Mr Sarkozy is unlikely to address this in public soon. He has signalled that his current return will be limited to sorting out the UMP's finances - not least because as the candidate last year he is ultimately liable. "This is not my political return," he told the meeting, according to his Twitter account. The day I return it will be to speak to the French about France. There is also a big question over how Mr Sarkozy would manage a renewed tilt at the Elysée Palace. He is unlikely to relish the UMP's current plan to hold presidential primaries in 2016. Mr Fillon, who only trails Mr Sarkozy narrowly in national polls, has said he will run regardless of Mr Sarkozy's intent and others are also planning to do so.