Nicolas Sarkozy
Birth date: 28.01.1955
Nicolas Sarkozy - French politician, President of the French Republic (2007-2012). During his term, he was also Co-Prince (Co-Regent) of Andorra and Grand Master of the Order of the Legion of Honor. From 1993 to 1995, 2002 to 2004, and from 2005 to 2007, he held various ministerial positions in the French government.
Place of birth. Education. Born in Paris. His full name is Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa.
In 1978, he graduated from the University of 'Paris X' in Nanterre with a Master's degree in Private Law. From 1979 to 1981, he studied at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. He defended his DEA diploma (Diplôme d'Études Approfondies) in Political Science. In 1981, he received his lawyer's seal.
In 1978, he began his legal career in Paris.
In 1977, he became a member of the municipal council of the wealthy Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
In 1981, he supported the party leader of the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR - Rally for the Republic) Jacques Chirac in the presidential elections.
1983-2002 - Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
1986-1988 - Vice President of the Municipal Council of the Hauts-de-Seine Department (Hauts-de-Seine).
In 1988, he was elected to the French National Assembly.
In 1993, he was appointed Minister of Budget and official government spokesperson in the cabinet of Édouard Balladur (Prime Minister of France from 1993 to 1995).
During the presidential election in 1995, he supported Balladur. Chirac, viewing this as a betrayal, removed Sarkozy from the leadership of the country after his victory.
1998 - Secretary General of the RPR, and from April to October 1999, he served as acting chairman of the party.
In June 1999, he led the merger of RPR and the Liberal Democrats (DL - Démocratie libérale), which came in third place in the European elections.
In 2000, he became chairman of the RPR committee of the Hauts-de-Seine Department.
In the presidential elections of 2002, Sarkozy supported Chirac again, who ultimately won in the second round against the far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Twice - in 2002-2004 and 2005-2007 - he served as Minister of the Interior.
In April 2004, he became State Minister and Minister of Economy, Finance, and Industry, as well as Chairman of the General Council of the Hauts-de-Seine Department.
On November 28, 2004, he was elected Chairman of the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP - Union for a Popular Movement), the successor party of the RPR.
On January 14, 2007, Sarkozy received 98% of the votes in the internal party elections and was officially nominated as the UMP's presidential candidate.
On April 22, 2007, Sarkozy received 31.11% of the votes and entered the second round of the presidential election against Ségolène Royal, who achieved 25.84%. In the second round on May 6, Sarkozy won with 53.06% of the votes.
On May 16, 2007, the new president of France was sworn in. He resigned from his positions as Chairman of the UMP and Chairman of the General Council of the Hauts-de-Seine. The UMP won the majority in Parliament (318 out of 577 seats).
In the second round of the presidential elections on May 6, 2012, Sarkozy lost to the socialist candidate François Hollande with 48.36% against 51.64%, having already lost to Hollande in the first round (27.18% against 28.63%).
On July 1, 2014, Sarkozy was arrested by police in Paris and, after being interrogated, was charged with abuse of power, corruption, and influence peddling during his presidency.
On September 19, 2014, Sarkozy announced his intention to return to politics. On November 29, Sarkozy was elected chairman of the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire with 64.5% of the votes.
On March 30 2015, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire won in the municipal elections, surpassing the National Front of Marine Le Pen.
On February 16, 2016, the Paris prosecutor François Molins announced that an investigation had been launched against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy for suspected illegal financing of his election campaign. According to prosecutors, Sarkozy's campaign expenses exceeded the legally established limit for the use of funds from the election fund by more than double.
In August 2016, Sarkozy announced on his official Facebook page his intention to participate in the 2017 presidential election.
In November 2016, Sarkozy dropped out of the presidential election in the first round of the conservative primaries with 22.9% and admitted his defeat.
On March 20, 2018, Nicolas Sarkozy was arrested by the French police in connection with possible illegal financing of his presidential campaign in Libya in 2007.
On March 1, 2021, Sarkozy was found guilty of corruption and bribery in France and sentenced to three years in prison, of which one year is actual imprisonment and two years are suspended sentences.
In September 2021, a Paris criminal court sentenced Sarkozy to one year in prison for illegal financing of the election campaign for the presidential elections in France in 2012. Sarkozy will serve the sentence at home under electronic monitoring.
On May 17, 2023, a French court confirmed the three-year sentence against Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy lost his appeal against the sentence imposed in 2021 for corruption and abuse of power.
Views and Assessments. Nicolas Sarkozy conducted the most extensive reform of the 1958 Constitution (47 out of 89 articles were changed or supplemented) with the slogan of modernizing the institutions of the Fifth Republic.
A focus of Nicolas Sarkozy's foreign policy is the European Union. In particular, the French leader was one of the authors and active advocates of the Lisbon Treaty, which amends the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community.
Nicolas Sarkozy also opposes an immediate accession of Turkey to the European Union but officially supports the accession of the Western Balkan states to the EU.
Contrary to the tradition prevailing in France until the time of Charles de Gaulle, Nicolas Sarkozy does not hide that he is a convinced Atlantist. In particular, he assured the USA that they 'can count on friendship' with France. 'But one should not forget: Friendship means a loyal attitude towards the fact that friends can have different views on the same issue,' the politician added.
In addition, he urged US authorities to do more to address issues related to global warming and climate change.
As President of France, who held the presidency of the EU, Nicolas Sarkozy contributed to the peaceful resolution of the military conflict in South Ossetia in 2008 by visiting Moscow and Tbilisi and working with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to develop the fundamentals of a peace agreement known as the 'Medvedev-Sarkozy Plan.'
Attitude towards the events in Ukraine. On February 7, 2015, Sarkozy supported the annexation of Crimea by Russia at the SNDC party congress and stated that Ukraine should be a 'bridge between Russia and Europe' and that 'its fate does not lie in the EU'.
On July 23, French deputies from Sarkozy's party visited the occupied Crimea and called for sanctions against Russia to be lifted, causing a real scandal. The actions of the deputies were even condemned by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Sarkozy not only supported the behavior of the deputies but also did not rule out that he himself would travel to Crimea in the future.
Regalia. Grand Cross of the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur, Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit, Order 'Stara Planina' with ribbon (Bulgaria, 2007), Commander of the Order of Leopold I (Belgium).
Family Ties. Nicolas Sarkozy has been married three times. He divorced his first wife in 1993 and his second wife in 2007. He has two children from his first marriage and a son from his second marriage. In 2008, Sarkozy married former model Carla Bruni.
01.05.2024