Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (born January 28 1955, in Paris, 17th arrondissement), simply known as Nicolas Sarkozy (Template:Audio), is a French politician. He is often nicknamed Sarko by both his supporters and his opponents, although this nickname is never used in an official context (unlike e.g. Anthony Blair whose nickname Tony Blair is used in official contexts).

As of May 2005, he is president of the UMP conservative political party and Minister of the Interior in the government of Dominique de Villepin, with the high honorific rank of Minister of State. His ministerials attributions include law enforcement and relationships with local governments.

He was previously a deputy to the French National Assembly and will have to resign this position because of his ministerial appointment. He has previously held several ministerial posts including Finance Minister and Minister of the Interior.

He is a probable contender for the 2007 French presidential election. His collaborators do not all agree that his return to the government in June of 2005 will help him in this, although it is widely recognised that his position, influence and popularity currently make him the third man at the country's head.

Contents

1 Origins 2 Studies and career 3 Action as a minister 4 Action as UMP's president 5 Ambition for the future 6 Timeline of career 7 Quotations 8 External links

Origins

Nicolas Sarkozy is the son of Pál Nagy-Bócsa y Sárközy, born in 1928 in Budapest into a family belonging to the lower aristocracy of Hungary. The family possessed lands and a small castle in Alattyán (Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county), 92 km (57 miles) east of Budapest.

As the Russians entered Hungary in 1944, the family fled the country. Pál Nagy-Bocsa y Sárközy crossed Austria and Germany with great difficulty in the chaos that was Central Europe at the end of the Second World War. 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. However, at the end of training, a doctor who sympathized with him gave him a medical discharge in order to save him from being sent to Indochina, where death at the hands of the Vietminh was quite likely (the Foreign Legion were the most exposed troops during the Indochina War). Upon returning to civil life in Marseilles in 1948, he acquired French citizenship and his name was officially Frenchified 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 doctor (or surgeon) with a well-established reputation in the very bourgeois 17th arrondissement of Paris. Benedict Mallah was originally a Sephardic Jew from Salonica in the Ottoman Empire (now 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. In the beginning of the 20th century, Benedict Mallah had migrated to France, acquired French citizenship, and converted to Catholicism when he married his French Catholic wife, Nicolas Sarkozy's grandmother.

Paul Sarkozy and Andrée Mallah settled in the 17th arrondissement and had three sons: Nicolas, born in 1955, François, born in 1957 (now a researcher in biology), and Guillame, born in 1951, who is an entrepreneur in the textile industry. Guillaume Sarkozy is also a well-known personality in France, being the leader of the union of textile entrepreneurs and the vice-president of the MEDEF, the French union of employers. Allegedly, Guillaume Sarkozy was prevented from running for the presidency of the MEDEF due to the political career of his brother Nicolas.

In 1959, Paul Sarkozy, who had the reputation of a Don Juan, left his wife and his three children. He later married two more times and he had two more children with his second wife. Abandoned with three young children, Sarkozy's mother resumed her legal studies. She graduated from law school, passed the bar exam in the western suburbs of Paris, and went on to become a successful lawyer. She pled in some of the famous cases of the 1970s, such as the Villarceaux case, a major political corruption scandal.

During Sarkozy's childhood, his father refused the family any financial help, even though he had now founded his own advertising agency and was making a lot of profit from it. The family lived in a small mansion owned by the grandfather Benedict Mallah in the 17th arrondissement. The family later moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, a wealthy commune immediately west of the 17th arrondissement. According to Sarkozy, his staunchly Gaullist grandfather was more of an influence for him than his flighty father whom he rarely saw. However, his grandfather is said never to have passed on his grandchildren their Jewish roots. He had turned a page when he had moved to France, and he wanted daughter and grandchildren to be raised French and to fully assimilate into the mainstream of French society. Nicolas Sarkozy, like his brothers, is a baptized and professing Catholic. Like his grandfather, the elder Paul Sarkozy never taught his children Hungarian or made any effort to teach them about their ethnic background. Sarkozy says that his father wanted the three children to be fully assimilated into French society, considering Hungary too small a country, and the Hungarian language and culture useless in the modern world. Thus, despite their various ethnic origins (50% Hungarian, 25% French, 25% Ottoman Jewish), the Sarkozy family can be described as a mainstream bourgeois Catholic family of western Paris, albeit one without a father.

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. He didn't feel fully French at the time (his father allegedly told him once that a Sarkozy could never become President of France, that such things happened only in the United States), suffered from many insecurities (his short stature, his family's lack of money) and harbored 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," Sarkozy later said. Friends and opponents alike say that his seemingly endless energy and unconcealed ambitions are driven by his desire to take revenge for what he felt as his second-class status in his youth.

Studies and career

Nicolas Sarkozy was enrolled in the Cours Saint-Louis de Monceau, a private Catholic middle and high school in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, where reportedly he was a mediocre pupil. Later he obtained a bachelor's degree in law from the Université Paris X Nanterre and a master's degree in political science at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (more commonly known as Sciences Po). After passing the bar exam, he became a lawyer specializing in French business law.

His political career began at the early age of 22 when he became a city councillor in Neuilly-sur-Seine. He went on to be elected mayor, serving from 1983 to 2002. In 1988 he became a deputy in the National Assembly. From 1993 to 1995, he was Minister of the Budget and spokesman for the executive in the cabinet of Édouard Balladur.

Throughout most of his early career, Sarkozy was seen as a protégé of Jacques Chirac. However, by 1995, he had spurned Chirac and was backing Prime Minister Édouard Balladur for President. After Chirac won the election, Sarkozy lost his position as Minister of the Budget and found himself outside the circles of power. It is widely alleged that ever since 1995 Chirac has considered Sarkozy's siding with Balladur as a form of treason.

In 2002, however, after his reelection as President of the French Republic (see French presidential election, 2002), Jacques Chirac appointed Sarkozy as Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, despite the widely acknowledged distrust between the two.

Following the cabinet reshuffle of 31 March 2004, Sarkozy was moved to the position of Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry. Tensions continued 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 a widely repeated anecdote, 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".[1] (http://www.rtl.fr/rtlinfo/article.asp?dicid=159060)

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 was reelected on 13 March 2005 to the National Assembly (as required by the French Constitution, he had had to resign from his mandate of deputy when he had become minister in 2002).

On 31 May 2005, the main French news radio station France Info reported that Sarkozy was rumored be re-appointed Minister of the Interior in the government of Dominique de Villepin without resigning from UMP leadership. This was confirmed on 2 June when the members of the government were officially announced.

Action as a minister

Towards the end of his spell as Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy was the most popular conservative politician in France, according to polls conducted at the beginning of 2004. However, his actions as a minister have made him a controversial figure in France.

He became Minister of the Interior at a time when France was facing significant social and public order problems, including a spate of anti-Semitic violence by Islamic youths. 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 criticized for putting forward legislation that some felt infringed on civil rights and adversely affected disadvantaged sections of the population, such as the homeless, prostitutes, and young people from housing estates. Another criticism was that Sarkozy's actions were more show than real substance, and relocated delinquency from some areas to some less fashionable ones.

During his appointment as Minister of Finance, Sarkozy introduced number of policies mixing libéralisme (an hands-off approach to running the economy) with some intervention. In September 2004, he oversaw the reduction of the government ownership share in France Télécom from 50.4% to 41% [2] (http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/business/0,39020715,39169571,00.htm). At this time, he reached an agreement with the major retail chains in France to lower retail prices by an average of 2%; the success of this measure is disputed, with studies suggesting that the decrease was closer to 1%.[3] (http://www.lexpansion.com/art/2576.78716.0.html) Sarkozy avoided taking a position on the ISF ("solidarity tax on fortune"), which is considered an ideological symbol by many on the Left and Right. Some in the business world and on the Right want it to be abolished, but such an action by Sarkozy would risk being categorized by the Left as a gift to the richest classes of society at a time of economic difficulties.[4] (http://www.nouvelobs.com/articles/p2063/a241461.html)

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") [5] (http://www.topchretien.com/topinfo/affiche_info_v2.php?Id=7305) where 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 subsidy of mosques by the government to help Muslim clerics accustomize to French values. [6] (http://www.libres.org/francais/actualite/archives/actualit%E9_1004/mosquees_a5_4504.htm) [7] (http://pierrevallet.hautetfort.com/archive/2004/11/17/faut-il_depoussierer_la_loi_de.html)

Action as UMP's president

He is presently the president of UMP, the French conservative party, elected with 85% of the votes. During his presidency, the number of members has significantly increased.

In 2005, he supported the Yes in the French referendum on the European Constitution.

Ambition for the future

As of 2005, many think that Sarkozy is the French Right's best hope for the 2007 presidential elections. While it is by no means certain that he will run, and his electoral platform is unknown at this point, it is conjectured that Nicolas Sarkozy would run on a platform of lower taxes and flexible labour markets, — which is often presented in some of the foreign press as moving closer to the social and economic model of the United States of America.[8] (http://www.newstatesman.com/site.php3?newTemplate=NSArticle_People&newDisplayURN=200401050011)[9] (http://www.voanews.com/english/2004-11-30-voa62.cfm) Because of this, and because of Sarkozy's perceived willingness to seek closer links with the United States, Sarkozy is generally quite popular with the US press.

On the other hand, Sarkozy's presidential ambition does not sit well with president Jacques Chirac, who sees him as a threat. While it is unknown at this point whether Chirac would seek a third term as president (a move which, though legal, most consider unlikely), it is possible that more "loyalist" candidates, such as Alain Juppé, would oppose Sarkozy. Whatever the case, Sarkozy's actions are already carefully monitored by his opponents.[10] (http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0%402-3224,36-388666,0.html)

Another barrier to Sarkozy's ambitions is the left-wing opposition. They are likely (and have started) to portray Sarkozy as a political showman "cozy with big business"; Guillaume Sarkozy, his brother, is a high official in the MEDEF, the foremost business union in France. They also state that Sarkozy has given tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations, and that he dwells on the security fears of citizens and uses law enforcement forces to make a show.

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.
• 1988, national secretary of the RPR, in charge of youth and teaching issues.
• Co-directer 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 the militants organisations)
• 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 department 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
• Nov 2004, elected the new head of President Jacques Chirac's governing UMP party.
• June 2005, Minister of State and Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of Dominique de Villepin

Quotations

• Le mérite et le travail doivent être des valeurs de plus en plus récompensées. Il faut applaudir, remercier la France qui se lève tôt. ("Merit and labour are values that should be rewarded more and more. We must applaud and be thankful to (the part of) France that gets up early.")

External links

• Nicolas Sarkozy's page as a former deputy of the French National Assembly (http://www.assemblee-nat.fr/tribun/fiches_id/2680.asp)
• Sarkozy takes over Chirac party (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4048917.stm)
• Profile: Nicolas Sarkozy (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3673102.stm)
• Nicolas Sarkozy: French Choose the American Way? (http://www.globalpolitician.com/articles.asp?ID=196) (from a pro-Sarkozy POV)

Preceded by: Daniel Vaillant	Minister of the Interior 2002-2004	Succeeded by: Dominique de Villepin
Preceded by: Francis Mer	Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry 2004	Succeeded by: Hervé Gaymard
Preceded by: Dominique de Villepin	Minister of the Interior 2005-present	Succeeded by: Incumbent Template:End boxde:Nicolas Sarkozy es:Nicolas Sarkozy fr:Nicolas Sarkozy pl:Nicolas Sarkozy