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amily background
Nicolas Sarkozy is the son of a Hungarian immigrant, Pál Sárközy de Nagy-Bócsa[2] (Hungarian: nagybócsai Sárközy Pál; some sources spell it Nagy-Bócsay Sárközy Pál; Hungarian pronunciation (help·info)), and a French mother, Andrée Mallah.
Pál Sárközy was born in 1928 in Budapest into a family belonging to the lower aristocracy of Hungary. The family possessed lands and a small castle in the village of Alattyán (near Szolnok), 92 km (57 miles) east of Budapest. Pál Sárközy's father and grandfather held elective offices in the town of Szolnok. Although the Sárközy de Nagy-Bócsa (nagybócsai Sárközy) family was Protestant, Pál Sárközy's mother, Katalin Tóth de Csáford (Hungarian: csáfordi Tóth Katalin), grandmother of Nicolas Sarkozy, was from a Catholic aristocratic family.
As the Red Army entered Hungary in 1944, the family fled to Germany[3]. They returned in 1945 but all their possessions were seised. Pál Sárközy's father died soon afterwards and his mother, fearing that, as a class enemy, he would be drafted into the Hungarian People's Army or sent to Siberia, urged him to leave the country and promised she would eventually follow him and meet him in Paris. Pál Sárközy managed to flee to Austria and then Germany while his mother reported to authorities that he had drowned in Lake Balaton. Eventually, he arrived in Baden Baden, near the French border, where the headquarters of the French Army in Germany were located, and there he met a recruiter for the French Foreign Legion. He signed up for five years, and was sent for training to Sidi Bel Abbes, in French Algeria, where the French Foreign Legion's headquarters were located. He was due to be sent to Indochina at the end of training, but the doctor who checked him before departure, who happened to also be Hungarian, sympathised with him and gave him a medical discharge to save him from possible death at the hands of the Vietminh. He returned to civilian life in Marseille in 1948 and, although he asked for French citizenship only in the 1970s (his legal status was that of a stateless person until then), he nonetheless gallicised his Hungarian name into "Paul Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa".
Paul Sarkozy moved to Paris where he used his artistic skills to enter the advertising industry. He met Andrée Mallah, Nicolas Sarkozy's mother, in 1949. Andrée Mallah, then a law student, was the daughter of Benedict Mallah, a wealthy urologist and STD specialist with a well-established reputation in the mainly bourgeois 17th arrondissement of Paris. Benedict Mallah was originally a Sephardic Jew from Thessaloniki (Salonica), Greece. According to Jewish genealogical societies, the Mallah family of Salonica anciently came from Provence in southern France, which they had probably left at the time of the Jewish expulsions in the Middle Ages. Benedict Mallah, the son of a jeweler, left Salonica, then part of the Ottoman Empire, in 1904 at the age of 14 to attend the prestigious Lycée Lakanal boarding school of Sceaux, in the southern suburbs of Paris. He studied medicine after his baccalaureate and decided to stay in France and become a French citizen. A doctor in the French Army during World War I, he met a recent war widow, Adèle Bouvier (1891-1956), from a bourgeois family of Lyon, whom he married in 1917. Adèle Bouvier, Nicolas Sarkozy's grandmother, was a Roman Catholic like the majority of French people. Benedict Mallah, for whom religion had reportedly never been a central issue, converted to Catholicism upon marrying Adèle Bouvier, which had been requested by Adèle's parents. Although Benedict Mallah converted to Catholicism, he and his family nonetheless had to flee Paris and take refuge in a small farm in Corrèze during World War II to avoid being arrested and delivered to the Germans.
Paul Sarkozy and Andrée Mallah settled in the 17th arrondissement in Paris and had three sons: Guillaume, born in 1951, who is an entrepreneur in the textile industry, Nicolas, born in 1955 and François, born in 1957 (an MBA and manager of a healthcare consultancy company [2]). In 1959 Paul Sarkozy left his wife and his three children. He later remarried twice and had two more children with his second wife.
[edit] Early life
During Sarkozy's childhood, his father refused to give his former wife's family any financial help, even though he had founded his own advertising agency and had become wealthy. The family lived in a small mansion owned by Sarkozy's grandfather, Benoît Mallah, in the 17th Arrondissement. The family later moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, the wealthiest commune of France immediately west of the 17th Arrondissement just outside of Paris. According to Sarkozy, his staunchly Gaullist grandfather was more of an influence on him than his father, whom he rarely saw. His grandfather, a Sephardi Jew by birth, was a convert to Roman Catholicism, and Sarkozy was, accordingly, raised in the Catholic faith of his household. Nicolas Sarkozy, like his brothers, is a baptised and professing Roman Catholic.
Sarkozy's father Paul did not teach him or his brothers Hungarian. No evidence suggests that there was an attempt to enculturate the Sarkozy siblings with their paternal ethnic background.
Sarkozy has said that his father's abandonment shaped much of what he is today. As a young boy and teenager, he felt inferior in relation to his wealthy classmates.[4] He did not feel fully French at the time, suffered from insecurities (his physical shortness, his family's lack of money, at least relatively to their 17th Arrondissement or Neuilly neighbours), and is said to have harboured a considerable amount of resentment against his absent father. “What made me who I am now is the sum of all the humiliations suffered during childhood”, he said later.[5]
[edit] Studies
Sarkozy was enrolled in the Cours Saint-Louis de Monceau, a private Catholic middle and high school in the 17th Arrondissement, where he was reportedly a mediocre pupil. Later he obtained a bachelor's degree in law from the Université Paris X Nanterre. He attended the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (more commonly known as Sciences Po), but did not graduate because he failed his exam in English [6]. He enrolled himself at Nanterre University in law, already run down some years after the riots of 1968. After passing the bar exam, he became a lawyer specializing in French business law and Family law, skills which he would later put to use in divorcing his first wife and helping his mother take legal action against his father in order to raise alimony [7].
[edit] Political career
[edit] General traits
Nicolas Sarkozy speaking at the congress of his party
Nicolas Sarkozy speaking at the congress of his party
He is generally recognised by the right and left as a highly skilled politician and striking orator. Supporters of Sarkozy within France emphasise his charisma, political innovation and willingness to "make a dramatic break" amidst mounting disaffection against "politics as usual"; Some see him as wanting to depart from traditional French social and economic principles in favour of American-style economic reform. Overall, he is generally considered to be somewhat more pro-US than most French politicians.
Since November 2004, he has been president of the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), France's major right political party, and he is Minister of the Interior in the government of Dominique de Villepin, with the honorific title of Minister of State, making him effectively the number three man in the French State after President Jacques Chirac and the prime minister. His ministerial responsibilities include law enforcement and working to co-ordinate relationships between the national and local governments. Previously, he was a deputy to the French National Assembly. He was forced to resign this position in order to accept his ministerial appointment. He previously also held several ministerial posts, including Finance Minister.
[edit] Career
Sarkozy's political career began at the age of 22, when he became a city councillor in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a wealthy and exclusive western suburb of Paris (in the Hauts-de-Seine département). A member of the Neo-Gaullist party RPR, he went on to be elected mayor of that town, after the death of the incumbent mayor Achille Peretti. Sarkozy had been close to Peretti, as former's mother was Peretti's secretary. The senior RPR politician in the time, Charles Pasqua, wanted to become mayor, and asked Sarkozy to organise his campaign. Instead Sarkozy profited from a short illness of Pasqua to propel himself into the office of mayor.[8] He was the youngest ever mayor of any town in France with a population of over 50,000. He served from 1983 to 2002. In 1988, he became a deputy in the National Assembly.
In 1993, Sarkozy was in the national news for personally dealing with the “Human Bomb”, a man who had taken small children hostage in a kindergarten in Neuilly. The “Human Bomb” was killed that day by policemen of the RAID, who entered the school stealthily while the attacker was resting.
From 1993 to 1995, he was Minister for the Budget and spokesman for the executive in the cabinet of Prime Minister Édouard Balladur. Throughout most of his early career, Sarkozy had been seen as a protégé of Jacques Chirac. However, in 1995 he spurned Chirac and backed Balladur for President of France. After Chirac won the election, Sarkozy lost his position as Minister for the Budget and found himself outside the circles of power. It is widely believed that ever since 1995 Chirac has considered Sarkozy's siding with Balladur as a form of treason, and that the two men now loathe one another.
However, he came back after the right-wing defeat at the 1997 parliamentary election, as number 2 of the RPR. When the party leader Philippe Séguin resigned, in 1999, he took the lead of the Neo-Gaullist party. But it obtained its worst result at the 1999 European Parliament election. With 12.7% of votes, the RPR list arrived after the dissident Rally for France of Charles Pasqua. Sarkozy lost the RPR leadership.
In 2002, however, after his re-election as President of the French Republic (see French presidential election, 2002), Chirac appointed Sarkozy as French Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, despite the widely acknowledged friction between the two. Following Jacques Chirac's 14th of July keynote speech on road safety Sarkozy as interior minister pushed through new legislation leading to the mass purchase of speed cameras and increased awareness of danger on the French road system.
Following the cabinet reshuffle of 31 March 2004, Sarkozy was moved to the position of Finance Minister. Tensions continued to build between Sarkozy and Chirac and within the UMP party, as Sarkozy's intentions of becoming head of the party after the resignation of Alain Juppé became clear. It became increasingly apparent that Sarkozy would go on to seek the presidency in 2007; in an often-repeated comment made on television channel France 2, when asked by a journalist whether he thought about the presidential election when he shaved in the morning, Sarkozy commented, “not just when I shave”.[9]
In November 2004 after party elections, Sarkozy became leader of the UMP with 85% of the vote. In accordance with an agreement with Chirac, he resigned his position as minister. Sarkozy's ascent was marked by the division of UMP between sarkozystes, such as Sarkozy's “first lieutenant”, Brice Hortefeux, and Chirac loyalists, such as Jean-Louis Debré.
Sarkozy was made Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by President Chirac in February 2005. He was re-elected on 13 March 2005 to the National Assembly (as required by the constitution,[10] he had had to resign as a deputy when he had become minister in 2002).
On 31 May 2005 the main French news radio station France Info reported a rumour that Sarkozy was to be reappointed Minister of the Interior in the government of Dominique de Villepin without resigning from the UMP leadership. This was confirmed on 2 June 2005, when the members of the government were officially announced.
[edit] Raffarin government
[edit] First term as Minister of the Interior
Nicolas Sarkozy, here with then prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, took pains during his first stint as Minister of the Interior to show that he cared about law enforcement (here, with some bicycle-mounted officers of the French National Police).
Nicolas Sarkozy, here with then prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, took pains during his first stint as Minister of the Interior to show that he cared about law enforcement (here, with some bicycle-mounted officers of the French National Police).
Towards the end of his first term as Minister of the Interior, in 2004, Sarkozy was the most popular conservative politician in France, according to polls conducted at the beginning of 2004. His “tough on crime” policies, which included increasing the police presence on the streets and introducing monthly crime performance ratings, were popular with many. However, he was criticised for putting forward legislation which can be questioned as an infringement on civil rights, and adversely affected disadvantaged sections of the population.[citation needed]
Sarkozy has sought to ease the sometimes tense relationships between the general French population and the Muslim community. Unlike the Catholic Church in France with their official leaders or the Protestants with their umbrella organisations to speak for them, Islam, with its lack of structure did not have any group that could legitimately deal with the French government on their behalf. Sarkozy felt that the foundation of such an organisation was desirable. He supported the foundation in May 2003 of the private non-profit Conseil français du culte musulman (“French Council of Muslim Worship”), an organisation meant to be representative of French Muslims.[11] In addition, Sarkozy has suggested amending the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State, mostly in order to be able to finance mosques and other Muslim institutions with public funds.[12]
[edit] Minister of Finance
During his short appointment as Minister of Finance, Sarkozy was responsible for introducing a number of policies. The degree to which this reflected libéralisme (a hands-off approach to running the economy) or more traditional French state dirigisme (intervention) is controversial. He resigned the day following his election as president of the UMP.
* In September 2004, Sarkozy oversaw the reduction of the government ownership stake in France Télécom from 50.4% to 41%.[13]
* Sarkozy backed a partial nationalisation of the engineering company Alstom decided by his predecessor when the company was exposed to bankruptcy in 2003.[14]
* Sarkozy reached an agreement with the major retail chains in France to concertedly lower prices on household goods by an average of 2%; the success of this measure is disputed, with studies suggesting that the decrease was closer to 1%.[15]
* Taxes: Sarkozy avoided taking a position on the ISF (“solidarity tax on fortune”). This is considered an ideological symbol by many on the Left and Right. Some in the business world and on the Liberal Right, such as Alain Madelin, wanted it abolished. For Sarkozy, that would have risked being categorised by the Left as a gift to the richest classes of society at a time of economic difficulties.[16]
[edit] Villepin government
[edit] Second term as Minister of the Interior
Sarkozy as Minister of the Interior with American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, after their bilateral meeting in Washington D.C.
Sarkozy as Minister of the Interior with American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, after their bilateral meeting in Washington D.C.
During his second term at the Ministry of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy was initially more discreet about his ministerial activities: instead of focusing on his own topic of law and order, many of his declarations addressed wider issues, since he was expressing his opinions as head of the UMP party.
Main article: Response to the 2005 civil unrest in France
However, the civil unrest in autumn 2005 put law enforcement in the spotlight again. Nicolas Sarkozy made a number of tough declarations. He was accused of having provoked the unrest by calling young delinquents from housing projects "racaille" in Argenteuil, near Paris. After the accidental death of two kids, which sparked the riots, Sarkozy first blamed it on "hoodlums" and gangsters. He was then criticised by many on the left wing, and including by a member of his own government, Azouz Begag, Delegate Minister for Equal Opportunities, who disagrees with his policies.[17]
After the rioting, he made a number of announcements on future policy: selection of immigrants, better tracking of immigrants, and a reform on the 1945 ordinance government justice measures for young delinquents.
In spring 2006, Nicolas Sarkozy was to present a bill to Parliament which would reform French immigration rules and procedures.
[edit] Action as UMP's leader
Sarkozy currently is the president of UMP, the French conservative party, elected with 85% of the vote. During his presidency, the number of members has significantly increased. In 2005, he supported a "yes" vote in the French referendum on the European Constitution.
Throughout 2005, Sarkozy became increasingly vocal in calling for radical changes in France's economic and social policies. These calls culminated in an interview with Le Monde on 8 September 2005, during which he claimed that the French had been misled for 30 years by false promises, and denounced what he considers to be unrealistic policies.[18] Among other issues:
* he called for a simplified and “fairer” taxation system, with fewer loopholes, and a maximum taxation rate (all direct taxes combined) at 50% of revenue;
* he approved measures reducing or denying social support to unemployed workers who refuse work offered to them;
* he pressed for a reduction in the budget deficit, claiming that the French state has been living off credit for some time.
Such policies are what are called in France libéral (that is, in favour of laissez-faire economic policies, although this judgment is made by French standards) or, with a pejorative undertone, ultra-libéral. Sarkozy rejects this label of libéral and prefers to call himself a pragmatist instead.
Sarkozy opened another avenue of controversy by declaring that he wanted a reform of the immigration system, with quotas designed to admit the skilled workers needed by the French economy. He also wants to reform the current French system for foreign students, claiming that it enables foreign students to take open-ended curricula in order to obtain residency in France; instead, he wants to select the best students to the best curricula in France.
In early 2006, the French parliament adopted a controversial bill known as DADVSI, which reforms French copyright law. Since his party was divided on the issue, Sarkozy stepped in and organised meetings between various parties involved. Later, groups such as the Odebi League and EUCD.info alleged that Sarkozy personally and unofficially supported certain amendments to the law, which enacted strong penalties against designers of peer-to-peer systems.
[edit] Controversy
Sarkozy's political views have been the subject of some controversy. Generally speaking, he is the bête noire of the left (see below), and is also criticised by many on the right, most vocally by the supporters of Jacques Chirac and Dominique de Villepin, such as Jean-Louis Debré, but also by social Catholics such as Christine Boutin; Boutin however, in the end, gave up her presidential bid and became a political advisor to Sarkozy. [3] [4]
Critics have accused him of being an authoritarian demagogue, ready to trade away civil liberties for political gains.[19]. Some of these accusations are echoed by French civil rights organisations. He is also accused, by the Left, of being a populist who favors far-right ideas.[20]
His political style, which relies heavily on communication,[21] and controversial statistics, is highly criticised as combative and aggressive.
[edit] Kärcher remark
Since his famous Kärcher remark, Nicolas Sarkozy has been lampooned about his fondness for cleaning out the riff-raff; here, electoral posters of Sarkozy were posted on a Kärcher car wash
Since his famous Kärcher remark, Nicolas Sarkozy has been lampooned about his fondness for cleaning out the riff-raff; here, electoral posters of Sarkozy were posted on a Kärcher car wash
In the midst of a tense period and following a shooting that killed an 11 year old boy in the banlieue of La Courneuve in June 2005, he quoted a local resident and vowed to clean the area out “with a Kärcher” (nettoyer la cité au Kärcher), Kärcher being a well-known brand of pressure cleaning equipment), and two days before the 2005 Paris riots he referred to the immigrant rioters as voyous (thugs), and racaille, a slang term which can be translated into English as dregs or riff-raff[22] this was criticised as being too hard on the rioters.[23][24]
[edit] Separation of powers
As a Minister of the Interior, Sarkozy systematically has made bold statements following heinous crimes reported in the media. As a consequence, he has been accused in certain cases of failing to respect the separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary, by trying to apply pressure in certain cases. Most famously, he was criticised not only by the left-wing Syndicat de la magistrature judges' union, but also by the centrist Union syndicale des magistrats, for attacks on the independence of the judiciary.[25]
In September 2005 some youths were acquitted of an arson attack on a police station in Pau for lack of proof and Sarkozy was accused of having pushed for a hasty enquiry — Sarkozy had vowed that the perpetrators would be arrested within 3 months.[26] On 22 June 2005, he announced to law enforcement officials that he had questioned the Minister of Justice about the future of “the judge” who had freed a man on parole, enabling him to commit a murder.[27] These comments were criticised by both moderate and left-wing magistrates, especially since Sarkozy, Minister of the Interior and a former attorney, must have been aware that this decision had been taken by 3 judges.
Sarkozy has personal friendships with some of the most powerful figures in the French business world; for example, Martin Bouygues (from the Bouygues group, owner of the TF1 channel, as well as telecommunications and public works companies) and Bernard Arnault (from LVMH) were his marriage witnesses. His brother, Guillaume, is a senior executive of the MEDEF, the foremost business union in France; in 2005, he renounced running for the top position of that union because he said he did not want to hinder his brother's political career.
[edit] Religion and state
Sarkozy, a Roman Catholic, has caused controversy because of his views on the relationship between religion and state. In 2004, he published a book called La République, les religions, l'espérance (“The Republic, Religions, and Hope”),[28] in which he argued that the young should not be brought up solely on secular or republican values. He also advocated reducing the separation of church and state, including the government subsidy of mosques in order to encourage Islamic integration into French society.[29][30] He flatly opposes financing of religious institutions with funds from outside France. There has also been controversy over his attitude to the Church of Scientology — which has itself been the subject of significant controversy in France — after meeting with Tom Cruise.[31]
[edit] War in Iraq
Nicolas Sarkozy, like almost all French politicians, disapproved of the US led invasion of Iraq, but was nonetheless critical of the way Jacques Chirac and his foreign minister Dominique de Villepin expressed France's opposition to the war. Talking at the French-American Foundation in Washington, D.C. on September 12, 2006, he denounced what he called the "French arrogance" and said: "It is bad manners to embarrass one's allies or sound like one is taking delight in their troubles."[32]. He also added: "We must never again turn our disagreements into a crisis." This speech, pronounced without the assent of the French president by a member of the French government traveling abroad (Sarkozy was still Minister of the Interior), was criticised by many in France. Jacques Chirac reportedly said in private that Sarkozy's speech was "appalling" and "a misdoing".[32]
[edit] Violent arrests
Nicolas Sarkozy is also known for a memorandum bearing his name (the 'circulaire Sarkozy'), that he signed as a Minister for the Interior, on 13 June 2006. In this decision sent to all prefects of France (his representatives in the provinces), he proposed to hand some immigration papers to immigrant families with children integrated in French schools. A strict series of conditions were listed in order to accept the regularisation of the situation of these families (proofs of integration in the country, proof of job, etc.). This offer attracted a large number of applications (around 25,000) handed to police services, usually under the advice of charities of specialised social associations. Unfortunately for the applicants, most of the files were refused, while still matching the 'Sarkozy memo' criteria. It appeared later that the minister had fixed, beforehand, a number of "about 6000" files to be accepted, whatever happened. The remaining 20,000 or so people have however been carefully registered in police files, including their personal address, and moreover the child's school (one of the criteria was providing school certificates). Most criticism is expressed about that 'trap' that these immigrants were sent in. As a matter of fact, the number of manu militari expulsions have increased a lot, since this circular, including shocking cases of parents being arrested when collecting their children in front of their schools. A couple of cases of children being arrested in schools have also been reported, as well as teachers usually hiding them in from the police. Some relatively violent arrest attempts lead to resistance from other parents and/or teachers or school headmasters, in particular in Paris (March 2007).[citation needed]
[edit] View on genetic predispositions
A few weeks before the first round of the 2007 presidential elections, Nicolas Sarkozy started an important controversy when he said, during an interview with philosopher Michel Onfray[33], that he inclined to think that character was largely genetic, famously stating "I don't agree with you, I'd be inclined to think that one is born a pedophile, and it is actually a problem that we do not know how to cure this disease."; he also claimed that suicides among youth was linked to genetic predispositions. These claims were strongly criticised by scientists, including famous geneticist Axel Kahn.[34][35]
[edit] Marriages, Divorce and Separation
On 23 September 1982 he married Corsican-born Marie-Dominique Culioli, daughter of a pharmacist from Vico (a village north of Ajaccio, Corsica). They have two sons, Pierre (born in 1985) and Jean (born in 1987). Sarkozy's marriage witness was the prominent right wing politician Charles Pasqua, later to become a political opponent. Sarkozy divorced Culioli in 1996, although had already been separated for some years. Culioli was at the time, and still is, a practicing charismatic of Roman Catholic faith, and affirms that she still prays fervently for Sarkozy [36]
As mayor of Neuilly, Sarkozy met Cécilia Ciganer-Albeniz (great-grand-daughter of Isaac Albéniz [37] At the time, she was then married to TV host Jacques Martin. In 1989, Ciganer-Albeniz left Martin for Sarkozy. After divorce lasting 4 months, Sarkozy married her in October 1996 (with witnesses Martin Bouygues and Bernard Arnault). They have one son, Louis, born in 1997.
Between 2002 and 2005, the couple often appeared together on public occasions, with Ciganer-Albeniz acting as a sort of chief aide for her husband.
The couple separated temporarily in 2005 when Cecilia Sarkozy left her husband for Richard Attias. On 25 May 2005, however, the Swiss newspaper Le Matin revealed that Ciganer-Albeniz had left Sarkozy for Moroccan national Richard Attias, head of Publicis in New York, and had already left. [38]. There were other accusations of a private nature in Le Matin. This led Sarkozy to sue Le Matin [5].
In late 2005, the press reported that Sarkozy was in a relationship with Anne Fulda, a journalist from Le Figaro. Finally, in January 2006, a reconciliation with Ciganer-Albeniz took place [39].
Ciganer-Albeniz and Sarkzoy are currently believed to be living together since then. In early 2006, Sarkozy suggested to the press that he welcomed Ciganer-Albeniz back from the USA, although the exact circumstances of the reconciliation are not well known [40].
[edit] Candidacy for President
Main article: French presidential election, 2007
Nicolas Sarkozy in 2006
Nicolas Sarkozy in 2006
In Toulouse for the 2007 presidential campaign
In Toulouse for the 2007 presidential campaign
On 14 January 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy was chosen by the UMP to be its candidate in the 2007 presidential election. Sarkozy, who was running unopposed, won 98% of the votes. Of the 327,000 UMP members who could vote, 69% participated in the online ballot.[41]
In February 2007 Sarkozy appeared on a televised debate on TF1 where he expressed his support for affirmative action for minorities and the freedom to work overtime, but his opposition to homosexual marriage.
On February 7, Nicolas Sarkozy finally decided in favour of a projected second, non-nuclear, aircraft carrier for the national Navy (adding to the nuclear Charles de Gaulle), during an official visit in Toulon with Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie. "This would allow permanently having an operational ship, taking into account the constraints of maintenance", he explained.[42] This new view on the second aircraft carrier issue comes in conflict with a January report, where he was against a second carrier.[43]
On March 21, 2007 French President Jacques Chirac announced his support for Sarkozy, adding that he had his vote. Chirac pointed out that Sarkozy had been chosen as presidential candidate for the ruling UMP party, and said: "So it is totally natural that I give him my vote and my support." To focus on his campaign, Sarkozy stepped down as interior minister on March 26, 2007.[44]
During the campaign, rival candidates had raised questions over Sarkozy's personality, being branded a "candidate for brutality" and presenting overly hardline views about France's future.[45] He was also criticised by opponents for allegedly courting conservative voters in policy-making in a bid to capitalise on right-wing sentiments among some communities. However, his popularity was sufficient to see him polling as the frontrunner throughout the later campaign period, consistently ahead of rival Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal.
The first round of France's presidential election was held on April 22, 2007. Nicolas Sarkozy came in first with 31.18% of the votes, ahead of Ségolène Royal of the Socialists with 25.87%. The two candidates now go forward to the second round of voting on May 6 2007 for a run-off poll.
On April 30, 2007 Ségolène Royal intensified a final effort to demonise him as a dangerous tyrant whose election would threaten the peace of France.[46]
[edit] Timeline of career
* 1977, becomes councillor in the town of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
* 1977, member of the central committee for the RPR.
* 1978 – 1979, national youth delegate for the RPR.
* 1979 – 1981, president of the national youth delegates under Jacques Chirac for the presidential election of 1981.
* 1983, becomes mayor in the town of Neuilly-sur-Seine
* 1988, national secretary of the RPR, in charge of youth and teaching issues.
* Co-director of the list "Union pour les Élections européennes".
* 1992 – 1993, secrétaire général-adjoint du RPR, chargé des Fédérations. (Assistant secretary of the RPR in charge of constituent interest groups)
* Since 1993, member of the RPR political office.
* 1993 – 1995, Minister for the Budget in the cabinet of Edouard Balladur.
* 1995 – 1997 spokesman for the RPR.
* 1998 – 1999, Secretary General of the RPR.
* 1999, interim president of the RPR.
* 1999, head of the RPR-DL electoral list of the European elections in June
* May 2000, elected President of the committee of the RPR for the département of Hauts-de-Seine
* 2002 – March 2004, Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
* March 2004 – November 2004, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry in the cabinet of Jean-Pierre Raffarin
* November 2004, elected the new head of President Jacques Chirac's governing UMP party.
* June 2005 – March 2007, Minister of State and Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of Dominique de Villepin.
* January 2007, nominated by the Union for a Popular Movement for the 2007 presidential election.
* March 2007, quits as Minister of Interior to get fully involved in the 2007 presidential campaign
* 22 April 2007, Sarkozy takes first place in the first round of voting for the French Presidential election.
[edit] Quotations
* Merit and labour are values that should be rewarded more and more. We must applaud and be thankful to the France that gets up early.
* To be a young Gaullist is to be a revolutionary! (National meeting of UDR in Nice, June 1975)
* The Chiraquian EEG is flat. This is no longer [Paris] City Hall, this is the antechamber of the morgue. Chirac is dead, only the 3 last shovelfuls are needed. (before the 1995 presidential elections)
* We live in a world where people don't all have the same scruples, where all blows can be given, and where, in order to down somebody, all means can be used. Nothing will lead me astray from the path that I have chosen. (Le Monde, 2005)
* June 2005: following these two declarations, Nicolas Sarkozy was reprimanded during the Council of Ministers by president Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin
o We shall clean the Cité des 4000 [in La Courneuve] with a Kärcher
o The judge who freed Mrs. Cremel's murderer will pay for his mistake.
* Success and social promotion are not some right that anybody can claim after queuing at some [government office]. It is better: it is a right, a right that one can merit because of one's sweat. (Summer meeting of the Young Populars in La Baule, 4 September 2005)
* All these squatted habitations, all these buildings must be closed in order to prevent these tragic events, and this is what I asked of the Prefect of Police because these people are poor human beings who are housed in unnacceptable conditions. After accepting people to whom, sadly, we cannot offer work or housing, we end up in a situation that results in tragedies like these. (France Inter, 30 August 2005, after several cases where poor black immigrant families from Africa had died when the derelict buildings in which they lived burnt down)
* Answering a woman asking him if he would help them “to get rid of this scum”: You've had enough, haven't you? Enough of this scum? Well, we're going to get rid of them for you. (Comments preceding the three weeks of urban violence, 25 October 2005)
* If you come to France and you wear a veil, if you go to one of the administrative buildings, then that's not acceptable. If you don't want your wife to be examined by a male doctor, then you're not welcome here. France is a country that's open. (Interview with Charlie Rose, televised 31 January 2007)
* If living in France bothers some people, they should feel free to leave the country. (UMP meeting 22 April )
* Do not assume I would have such a fatitude (sic) (France Inter interview, 18 April 2007). In French, Ne me prêtez pas une telle fatitude. The word fatitude does not exist in French.
free money for you all !
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