French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday officially announced he is running for reelection following months of speculation that he was mulling the decision.

“I am [a] candidate for the presidential election,” he said, according to France24, which was quoting an interview with French TF1 television.

Sarkozy said that France’s economy still needs to recover especially when the eurozone is grappling with Greece’s debt crisis.

“France can’t pretend that the crisis doesn’t exist, that Europe doesn’t exist, that the world doesn’t exist,” Sarkozy said, according to the report.

The president also touted a potential referendum on unemployment benefits as well as jobs training. 

“When one is unemployed, one has rights and responsibilities … I want to protect and help the jobless, but above all I want to give them the means to work. I want to put jobs at the center of everything,” he said.

Sarkozy went after his main rival, Socialist Party frontrunner Francois Hollande, saying that “in my long political career I have seen many people promise a dream. Those dreams always turned into nightmares,” reported AFP, quoting the TF1 interview.

Hollande on Wednesday held a rally in his hometown of Rouen before Sarkozy announced his bid.

“The script has been written: the incumbent candidate will promise new things. He will try to turn his weaknesses into strengths. He has been wrong for five years and now he calls that experience,” Hollande said, according to AFP.