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BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT, France Two years after losing the lyse Palace to the Socialists, Nicolas Sarkozy is seeking to mount a historic comeback by swinging further to the political right.

In the United States, the tea party revolution may be cooling. But in Europe, Sarkozys shift is a sign of the times. He and other European conservatives have found themselves caught more than ever in a political no mans land: the territory between their traditional opponents on the left and the rising fortunes of the far right.

Their apparent answer: If you cant beat the nationalists and populists, then start to sound more like them.

The animated president of France from 2007 to 2012, Sarkozy will see his first goal post arrive this Saturday: a vote for the leadership of his center-right Union for a Popular Movement party. It comes after a campaign he has waged through town hall meetings and special appearances across France and in which the debonair 59-year-old has unveiled pledges seemingly aimed at currying favor with voters flirting with the far right.

Angry about immigration? Dont worry, he says, he may just pull France out of a treaty that allows passport- and visa-free travel between 26 nations in Europe. Dont like Frances new law legalizing gay marriage? Sarkozy is now vowing to repeal it. Not happy with the European Union? He now says he wants its powers cut in half.

In recent weeks, Sarkozy has ostensibly been campaigning only for his partys leadership. But the race has been tinted with far more ambition. At a recent rally in this wealthy Paris suburb, for instance, ubiquitous campaign posters simply dubbed him My President, suggesting what many observers see as a grand plan: to reclaim the presidency in 2017 by staging the biggest comeback in French politics since Charles de Gaulles return to power in the 1950s.

I am not here to be the chosen candidate of journalists, Sarkozy said. I am here to be carried by the French people.

By hardening his stances on immigration in particular, Sarkozy is following a trail being blazed by other European conservatives facing similar challenges from the far right including British Prime Minister David Cameron. But in France, at least, there are early signs the strategy may not be working suggesting a complicated path ahead for European conservatives.

True, Sarkozy is expected to handily win on Saturday. But that is only because his top rival for the partys ticket in 2017 the mayor of Bordeaux and former prime minister Alain Jupp is not running. Worse, opinion polls show Sarkozy is failing to connect with French voters beyond his core supporters.

Even as he sets the stage for his comeback this Saturday, one survey conducted this month by the CSA polling firm showed him with a national approval rating of only 35 percent, down from 39 percent in September. The anti-immigrant nationalists led by Marine Le Pen have never been stronger here. Yet increasingly, his decision to court supporters of her National Front seems to be backfiring by turning off more centrist voters.

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Sarkozy shifts right, but will French voters shift away?