- Justice.Nicolas Sarkozy will be tried for corruption and influence peddling
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy confesses in his new memoir "Le Temps de Tempêtes" ("Time of storms" or "Time of storms", editorial L'Observatoire) that since he was a child he was fascinated by storms. He was afraid and at the same time, they attracted him like a magnet.
"I love storms, and not only in the climatic sense. I have often looked for them, expected them, dreamed them. It is my way of being and they constitute my identity", Sarkozy said in the foreword, who explains that since he was young he has done everything what he has been able to escape from calm. "It is the heart of the cyclone that one feels most alive. It is on the brink of the precipice that we appreciate the simple joys of life the most," writes the president of France between 2007 and 2012.
Sarkozy remembers storm chasers, those lovers or scholars of meteorological phenomena who travel thousands of kilometers to record or photograph tornadoes. Throughout his political career - mayor of Neuilly sur Seine, interior minister and president, among other positions - he has searched, found and navigated many storms: political, electoral, sentimental, national and international.
In his first volume of memoirs, entitled "Passions", he spoke of his passion for politics. It was a success in sales: it sold 300,000 copies. The book ranged from his first steps in the world of politics to his victory in the presidential elections in May 2007.
"Time of Storms" begins with Sarkozy only for a few brief moments in his newly opened presidential office at the Elysee Palace, after accompanying Jacques Chirac to his car after the transfer of powers.
"As of May 16, 2007, I was alone (...). Only to make and make the final decision (...). I closed my eyes. Suddenly, gravity and, above all, my own loneliness I fell on my shoulders from office (...) I was both calm and perfectly aware of being on the edge of a precipice, "he says in the book. This storm chaser had become the captain of the ship in charge of bringing France to port.
But once at the command post, "being alone, even if only for a few moments, was practically impossible. Not a minute without being asked for an order, a signature, an opinion. You had to take care of everything and especially immediately. The whirlwind began in the first second to stop no longer for five years, "he says graphically.
His new volume of memoirs covers some of the events that marked his first two years of presidency : from the 2008 financial crisis to the conflict between Russia and Georgia, through the release of Ingrid Betancourt, her rejection of Turkey's accession to the European Union, its confrontations with the unions and its commitment to the Franco-German axis in European construction.
He also evokes, as he did in "Pasiones", his stormy sentimental life: his divorce from Cécilia, his wedding at the Elysee Palace with the singer and model Carla Bruni and his first trips accompanying her as first lady.
Ambitious politician
Sarkozy openly acknowledges his political ambition and assures that he never wanted to be "a normal president" like the socialist François Hollande, because he has always liked to be noticed. It does not disguise the hobby it has for Ségolène Royal, her rival in the 2007 presidential elections , which she considers a demagogue. And he distributes criticism and flattery left and right among other French politicians.
The president takes readers behind the scenes of international politics and offers a glimpse of what's going on behind the scenes at those high-level meetings. The book is full of anecdotes and encounters with international leaders : from Angela Merkel to Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Tony Blair, the Queen of England and Silvio Berlusconi.
Sarkozy leaves former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero well. "His membership in the Socialist Party did not prevent us from maintaining cordial relations, or even friendship," he explains. "I have always thought that Spain had a central role to play in Europe," adds the former president, who assures that the Spanish never forgot that he was always when he was Minister of the Interior "next to Spanish democracy against ETA terrorists."
Every time Sarkozy publishes a book - this is the fourth he has published since leaving the Presidency - there is speculation about whether or not he is preparing a return to politics . He assures that he will not return, although many in his party, The Republicans, dream of his return. "I am not in campaign. I do not miss it. Nobody believes me, but it is true," Sarkozy told the newspaper 'Le Figaro'.
This 520-page book was born during the coronavirus health storm. Sarkozy wrote it during confinement for the Covid-19 pandemic. Now the former president will have to face another storm: the judicial one, from which he may not come out so well.
Sarkozy accumulates cases in court. In November, he will sit on the bench for those accused of corruption and influence peddling in a court case known in France as the "wiretapping case." And in March 2021, he will be tried for alleged illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign in the so-called Bygmalion case .
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