The former president of the Fifth Republic, who also turned out to be the Prince of Andorra and the Grand Master of the Order of the Legion of Honor, was remembered by most of the world's population more as the husband of the beautiful model Carla Bruni. The son of a Hungarian immigrant, Nicolas Sarkozy, managed to do the unbelievable - to break through to the pinnacle of power. He is the first Frenchman in history to become the head of state in the second generation.
Origin
The future president of France was born in Paris on January 28, 1955, in the family of Pal Nagy-Bocha Sharkezy, a native of Budapest, and Andre Malla, a Frenchwoman. The father came from an old Hungarian dynasty, who fled to the West in 1944 after Soviet troops entered the country. His relatives, who once owned the castle and are large Hungarian landowners, were supporters of the pro-fascist Horthy regime.
In Baden-Baden, under the name of Paul Sarkozy (rewriting his surname in French), he enrolled in the French Foreign Legion. In 1948demobilized after serving a five-year contract in Algeria and not wanting to go to fight in French Indochina.
Having received French citizenship for his service, he settled in Marseille. Later he moved to Paris, where he met a pretty Parisian student, who soon became his wife. Andre was a law student and was the daughter of a locally renowned surgeon. Her father was an emigrant from the Greek city of Thessaloniki, a Sephardic Jew who converted to Catholicism. Mom, also a Catholic, was French. It was she who gave a quarter of the French roots of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Early years
The boy was brought up by his grandfather, who was an ardent Gaullist. Nicolas studied at a Catholic school, and rather mediocre. The father occasionally appeared, scolded his son and disappeared again. He did not provide any financial support to the family. As a child, as Nicolas Sarkozy later recalled, he did not feel like a full-fledged Frenchman, he suffered from a relatively poor financial situation. After the death of their grandfather, they moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, a town near Paris.
In 1973, Nicolas graduated from high school and entered the University of Paris X-Nanterre, graduating in 1978 with a master's degree in civil law. He continued his education at the Institute of Political Studies, but, before finishing his studies, he began his career as a lawyer in the field of real estate.
As mayor
Nicolas Sarkozy joined politics early. In 1976 he joined the new Gaullist party Unification insupport of the republic” (OPR), which was founded by the future president Jacques Chirac. He was recommended by the famous French politician Charles Pasqua. A year later, from this party, he became a member of the city council of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the western outskirts of Paris. And when he was 28 years old, in 1983 he became the mayor of this city and remained in this post until 2002.
He did well during the presidential campaign in 1981, when he worked on the youth committee of Jacques Chirac. A young and energetic young man was noticed and began to be promoted to big politics, in 1988 he became a deputy of the Lower House of Parliament. The first photos of Nicolas Sarkozy with leading French politicians appeared in the press of those years.
From 1993-1995 he was Minister of the Budget and then Minister of Communications in the government of Edouard Balladur.
Minister
Nicolas Sarkozy showed himself especially brightly as Minister of the Interior, Internal Security and Local Self-Government in 2002-2004. France at this time was overwhelmed by a wave of crime, growing problems associated with tensions in the large Muslim community, and aggressive anti-Semitism flourished. The situation in Corsica, with its traditional separatism, escalated. In 2002 alone, more than 200 terrorist attacks took place on the island.
The reforms and their harsh administration caused strong discontent in liberal circles, who accused the ministry of infringing on civil liberties. Measures to strengthen the fight against crime included the expansionpowers given to law enforcement forces, the widespread presence of the police on the streets. Tightening control on the streets and roads has reduced the number of accidents. There was a systematic fight against illegal immigration and prostitution.
Successes as a minister were appreciated, and in May 2004 he was appointed Minister of State - the second most important post in the government. In 2007, he resigned in connection with the preparations for the presidential elections.
At the pinnacle of power
In the second round of elections, Sarkozy defeated the socialist Segolene Royal, gaining 53% of the vote. After becoming President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy embarked on large-scale reforms. First of all, the changes concerned the basic law of the country. Many changes were made regarding the activities of the president, including restrictions on the re-election of the head of state. Parliament has been given the right to veto presidential candidates. Other reforms, such as an increase in the presidential salary by 140% while reducing taxes on it, caused an extremely sharp reaction in society, where he was already treated quite critically.
The actions of President Nicolas Sarkozy to strengthen European integration, stabilize and improve the efficiency of the European Union's financial system have received international recognition. He advocated strengthening the influence of the European Union on world politics and was opposed to Turkey's admission to this organization.
The significant contribution of Nicolas Sarkozy (France was at that time the EU presidency),representing not only his country, but Europe as a whole, contributed to the settlement of the military conflict in South Ossetia.
After the presidency
In 2012, President Nicolas Sarkozy lost in the second round of elections to the socialist Francois Hollande, Segolene Royal's ex-husband. It is interesting that Sarkozy, in turn, won the second round of the previous presidential elections against her. After the defeat, he returned to the practice of law in his law firm, which he founded back in the 80s. Then Sarkozy announced that he would never again engage in politics.
However, in September 2014, he officially announced his return to the political arena. According to all ratings then Sarkozy was in the lead among right-wing voters. However, in the primaries for the 2017 presidential election, he took only third place and dropped out of the race.
Libyan revenge
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was detained by the police on March 20, 2018 in connection with a corruption investigation. The main charge concerned the receipt of funds for his 2007 election campaign from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. This is the first time an ex-head of state has been detained. Under French law, funding for campaign funds from foreign sources is prohibited.
An investigation into the possible financing of Sarkozy's election campaign by the Libyan authorities began in April 2013. In 2011, the son of the murdered Gaddafi, the leader of the Jamaheriya, said that his father sponsored the campaign fund,transferring more than 50 million euros. The following year, Mediapart published documents confirming these transactions, which Sarkozy called fake.
Heavy personal life
Relatively little is known about life with his first wife, they got married in 1982. His chosen one was a girl from a small village from Corsica - Dominique Cuglioli, who worked as a pharmacist. The Corsican gave birth to him two sons - Pierre (1985) and Jean (1987).
In 1984, he met Cecilia Cigane-Albeniz, and at her wedding. Sarkozy, as mayor of the small town of Neuilly-sur-Seine, attended the incorporation ceremony at the municipality. The bride, already pregnant, married the owner of the local TV channel, Jacques Martin. All this did not prevent Nicolas from falling in love with Celilia. Their romance lasted 12 years, during which time Madame Martin gave birth to two daughters from her husband. For one of the daughters, Nicolas Sarkozy's wife became a godmother.
Second marriage
The old lovers got married in 1996, a year later they had a son, Louis. However, over time, reports began to appear in the yellow press that a crisis had come in the family relations of a high-ranking official. In 2005, the famous Paris Match magazine published pictures of Cecilia and her alleged lover, Moroccan-born businessman Richard Attias, whom she married after her divorce from Sarkozy.
They were going to break up at the beginning of 2007, but decided to postpone it due to the beginning of the presidential campaign. However, already in Octobernotice of divorce by mutual consent.
Blind date
French advertising guru Jacques Seguel was giving dinner. Among those invited were only married couples, and only Nicolas and Carla came alone. A friend of the President thought he could do with a little romantic adventure after a difficult divorce from his second wife, and arranged for a blind date. As they later wrote, it was only towards the end of the dinner that the girl realized that she was being set up with the head of state. All evening he showered her with compliments, as the first lady of France later wrote, she was captivated by the charm and intelligence of Sarkozy. The couple began dating, they were not embarrassed that the height of Nicolas Sarkozy is 166 cm, and Carla Bruni is 175 cm. True, she had to give up shoes with heels when they went out together.
Three months later, in February 2008, a modest wedding took place. The wedding, held at the Elysee Palace, was attended by 20 people. Many journalists doubted the sincerity of the feelings of the newlyweds, considering this to be another business project.
The rush, as it turned out, was due to the fact that Sarkozy wanted to introduce Charles to Queen Elizabeth. According to the rules of etiquette, he could not introduce Her Majesty to his girlfriend - only to his lawful wife. All went well, although London welcomed the presidential couple with a reprint of a photo from her modeling past. A large black-and-white nude photograph of Carla Bruni, which sold at Christie's for $135,000 the same year. In October 2011, a daughter, Julia, was born in the family.
