Nicolas Sarkozy Family History

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Sarkozy#Family_background
Family 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 seized. 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 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.


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, Benedict Mallah, in the 17th Arrondissement. The family later moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest commune of the Île-de-France région 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 Catholicism, and Sarkozy was, accordingly, raised in the Catholic faith of his household. Nicolas Sarkozy, like his brothers, is a baptised and professing Catholic. Sarkozy also said recently that one of his role models was former pope John Paul II.

Sarkozy's father Paul did not teach him or his brothers Hungarian. There is no evidence suggesting that there was an attempt to educate the Sarkozy siblings about 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 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>


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>.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Sarkozy#Family_background

http://www.ejpress.org/article/16491
In an interview Nicolas Sarkozy gave in 2004, he expressed an extraordinary understanding of the plight of the Jewish people for a home: “Should I remind you the visceral attachment of every Jew to Israel, as a second mother homeland? There is nothing outrageous about it. Every Jew carries within him a fear passed down through generations, and he knows that if one day he will not feel safe in his country, there will always be a place that would welcome him. And this is Israel.” (From the book “La République, les religions, l’espérance”, interviews with Thibaud Collin and Philippe Verdin.)

Sarkozy’s sympathy and understanding is most probably a product of his upbringing; it is well known that Sarkozy’s mother was born to the Mallah family, one of the oldest Jewish families of Salonika, Greece. Additionally, many may be surprised to learn that his yet-to-be-revealed family history involves a true and fascinating story of leadership, heroism and survival. It remains to be seen whether his personal history will affect his foreign policy and France’s role in the Middle East conflict.

In the 15th century, the Mallah family (in Hebrew: messenger or angel) escaped the Spanish Inquisition to Provence, France and moved about one hundred years later to Salonika. In Greece, several family members became prominent Zionist leaders, active in the local and national political, economic, social and cultural life. To this day many Mallahs are still active Zionists around the world.

Sarkozy’s grandfather, Aron Mallah, nicknamed Benkio, was born in 1890. Beniko’s uncle Moshe was a well-known Rabbi and a devoted Zionist who, in 1898 published and edited “El Avenir”, the leading paper of the Zionist national movement in Greece at the time. His cousin, Asher, was a Senator in the Greek Senate and in 1912 he helped guarantee the establishment of the Technion – the elite technological university in Haifa, Israel. In 1919 he was elected as the first President of the Zionist Federation of Greece and he headed the Zionist Council for several years. In the 1930’s he helped Jews flee to Israel, to which he himself immigrated in 1934. Another of Beniko’s cousins, Peppo Mallah, was a philanthropist for Jewish causes who served in the Greek Parliament, and in 1920 he was offered, but declined, the position of Greece’s Minister of Finance. After the establishment of the State of Israel he became the country’s first diplomatic envoy to Greece.

In 1917 a great fire destroyed parts of Salonika and damaged the family estate. Many Jewish-owned properties, including the Mallah’s, were expropriated by the Greek government. Jewish population emigrated from Greece and much of the Mallah family left Salonika to France, America and Israel. Sarkozy’s grandfather, Beniko, immigrated to France with his mother. When in France Beniko converted to Catholicism and changed his name to Benedict in order to marry a French Christian girl named Adèle Bouvier. Related stories

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Adèle and Benedict had two daughters, Susanne and Andrée. Although Benedict integrated fully into French society, he remained close to his Jewish family, origin and culture. Knowing he was still considered Jewish by blood, during World War II he and his family hid in Marcillac la Croisille in the Corrèze region, western France.

During the Holocaust, many of the Mallahs who stayed in Salonika or moved to France were deported to concentration and extermination camps. In total, fifty-seven family members were murdered by the Nazis. Testimonies reveal that several revolted against the Nazis and one, Buena Mallah, was the subject of Nazis medical experiments in the Birkenau concentration camp.

In 1950 Benedict’s daughter, Andrée Mallah, married Pal Nagy Bosca y Sarkozy, a descendent of a Hungarian aristocratic family. The couple had three sons – Guillaume, Nicolas and François. The marriage failed and they divorced in 1960, so Andrée raised her three boys close to their grandfather, Benedict. Nicolas was especially close to Benedict, who was like a father to him. In his biography Sarkozy tells he admired his grandfather, and through hours spent of listening to his stories of the Nazi occupation, the “Maquis” (French resistance), De Gaulle and the D-day, Benedict bequeathed to Nicolas his political convictions.

Sarkozy’s family lived in Paris until Benedict’s death in 1972, at which point they moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine to be closer to the boys’ father, Pal (who changed his name to Paul) Sarkozy. Various memoirs accounted Paul as a father who did not spend much time with the kids or help the family monetarily. Nicolas had to sell flowers and ice cream in order to pay for his studies. However, his fascination with politics led him to become the city’s youngest mayor and to rise to the top of French and world politics. The rest is history.


It may be a far leap to consider that Sarkozy’s Jewish ancestry may have any bearing on his policies vis-à-vis Israel. However, many expect Sarkozy’s presidency to bring a dramatic change not only in France’s domestic affairs, but also in the country’s foreign policy in the Middle-East. One cannot overestimate the magnitude of the election of the first French President born after World War II, whose politics seem to represent a new dynamic after decades of old-guard Chirac and Mitterrand. There is even a reason to believe that Sarkozy, often mocked as “the American friend” and blamed for ‘ultra-liberal’ worldviews, will lean towards a more Atlanticist policy. Nevertheless, there are several reasons that any expectations for a drastic change in the country’s Middle East policy, or foreign policy in general, should be downplayed.

First, one must bear in mind that France’s new president will spend the lion’s share of his time dealing with domestic issues such as the country’s stagnated economy, its social cohesiveness and the rising integration-related crime rate. When he finds time to deal with foreign affairs, Sarkozy will have to devote most of his energy to protecting France’s standing in an ever-involved European Union (www.ejpress.org/article/voices/13181). In his dealings with the US, Sarkozy will most likely prefer to engage on less explosive agenda-items than the Middle-East.

Second, France’s foreign policy stems from the nation’s interests, rooted in reality and influenced by a range of historic, political, strategic and economic considerations. Since Sarkozy’s landing at the Elysée on May 16 will not change those, France’s foreign policy ship will not tilt so quickly under a new captain.

Third reason why expectations for a drastic change in France’s position in the Middle-East may be naïve is the significant weight the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs exerts over the country’s policies and agenda. There, non-elected bureaucrats tend to retain an image of Israel as a destabilizing element in the Middle-East rather then the first line of defense of democracy. Few civil servants in Quai d’Orsay would consider risking France’s interests or increasing chances for “a clash of civilizations” in order to help troubled Israel or Palestine to reach peace.


It is a fair to predict that France will stay consistent with its support in establishing a viable Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, existing side by side with a peaceful Israel. How to get there, if at all, will not be set by Sarkozy’s flagship but rather he will follow the leadership of the US and the EU. Not much new policy is expected regarding Iran, on which Sarkozy has already voiced willingness to allow development of civilian nuclear capabilities, alongside tighter sanctions on any developments with military potency.

One significant policy modification that could actually come through under Sarkozy is on the Syrian and Lebanese fronts. The new French president is not as friendly to Lebanon as was his predecessor, furthermore, as the Minister of the Interior, Sarkozy even advocated closer ties between France and Syria. Especially if the later plays the cards of talking-peace correctly, Sarkozy may increase pressure on Israel to evacuate the Golan Heights in return for a peace deal with Assad.

Despite the above, although Sarkozy’s family roots will not bring France closer to Israel, the presidents’ personal Israeli friends may. As a Minister of Interior, Sarkozy shared much common policy ground with former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The two started to develop a close friendship not long ago and it is easy to observe similarities not only in their ideology and politics, but also in their public image. If Netanyahu returns to Israel’s chief position it will be interesting to see whether their personal dynamic will lead to a fresh start for Israel and France, and a more constructive European role in the region.
http://www.ejpress.org/article/16491

Thanks Joanne, I was wondering about his history last night after watching C-Span's coverage of the pre-elections.
Any friend of Bush is not a friend of mine but the French are an amazing people.
If he get's too out of hand, they will simply have a national boycott and out him. Wish we had that kind of spirit here!

I also think that Sarkozy happens to look like an older version of that Canadian commedian, Kevin McDonald -

Kevin McDonald:


Sarkozy:

Well. We can guess what stock is going up tommorrow. It's too bad I don't have any money! France better keep a CLOSE EYE on this!
http://www.bioalliancepharma.fr/news_press0106_eng.asp
01/05/2006 Press Release
BioAlliance Pharma Names François Sarkozy as Vice-Chairman of its Supervisory Board

Healthcare industry professional brings further operational and international experience to specialty pharma company

PARIS – January 5, 2006 – BioAlliance Pharma (Euronext Paris: BIO), an emerging specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative therapeutics targeting drug resistance in cancer, HIV, and severe and opportunistic infections, announced today that François Sarkozy, MD, DEA, MBA, has been elected to serve as Vice-Chairman and independent member of its Supervisory Board (Conseil de Surveillance). Dr. Sarkozy is currently a Managing Partner of AEC Partners, a Paris-based healthcare consultancy.

“François is a quality addition to our board and we welcome the strong operational and international experience in healthcare he brings to the company ,” said Jean-Claude Deschamps, Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

“We look forward to benefiting from François’ extensive industry knowledge gained through his experience in a large global healthcare company and as a former practising physician in the Paris Public Hospital Authority,” said Dominique Costantini, MD, Chairman of the BioAlliance Management Board and CEO. “He will also bring a fresh perspective as BioAlliance makes the transition to a company focused on product commercialisation.”

Dr. Sarkozy, age 46, has served as a Managing Partner at AEC Partners since 2001, where his assignments have included international medical and marketing strategy, project and resource management, business development and negotiation analysis, commercialisation of new products and change management in mergers and reorganizations. Previously, during the period 1990-2000, he was Medical Director, France, for Aventis Pharma; Medical & Pharmaceutical Director, France, for Hoechst Marion Roussel, where he was also Vice President and Head of Global Portfolio & Project Management, the latter position including three years in the U.S.; earlier, he held various positions with Roussel-Uclaf, including International Development Director, International Clinical Development Head, and International Product Manager for Antibiotics. From 1983 to 1990, he was an Assistant in the Respiratory Physiology Department of the Paris Public Hospital Authority, where he also did his internship (Interne des Hôpitaux de Paris) in pediatrics. He holds an MBA from INSEAD.

About BioAlliance Pharma


BioAlliance Pharma is a privately held late stage biopharmaceutical company focused on drug resistance through development and commercialization of innovative therapeutics targeting markets in cancer, HIV, severe infections and supportive care. The company has two broad proprietary drug delivery platforms represented by the Lauriad® adhesive technology and the Transdrug® nanoparticle technology that provide multiple product opportunities. Together with a New Chemical Entities program focused on development of new drugs in oncology and HIV, the company is able to address worldwide markets in the EU, US, and Asia.

The company’s lead product within its adhesive technology program, the miconazole Lauriad® 50 mg Bioadhesive Buccal Tablet, is being investigated in two recently completed Phase III trials in Europe for treatment of oropharyngeal candidiasis in cancer and HIV patients. A pivotal Phase III trial in the same indication is planned for the U.S. later this year. A Phase I/II trial in hepatocellular carcinoma utilizing the company’s doxorubicin Transdrug® nanoparticle delivery technology is ongoing in Europe, where it has been granted an orphan medicinal product designation by the EMEA.

For additional company background, click here.
http://www.bioalliancepharma.fr/news_press0106_eng.asp

... was the mystery rower in the DGSE's 1985 sinking of the Greenpeace campaign ship Rainbow Warrior, in which one of the latter's crew was killed.

France is exotic that way.

It's a pity, because I was looking forward to foreign leaders who'd particularly pissed of Mme la Présidente meeting inexplicable boating accidents.

(except he's dead)

Note that Gérard was doing it in his service capacity, not out of any party loyalty (I don't know if he has any).

But the government that ordered the operation was a Socialist Party one. France's particular take on greatness crosses party lines, you see (not that such things mattered much to Mitterrand anyway).

Greenpeace's opposition to France's nuclear testing in the South Pacific was considered a menace to the maintenance of French nuclear strength. Or an affront to national pride. Or just too tempting a target.

Like I said, exotic.

Mitterrand's brother was also head of the vast Aérospatiale conglomerate too, which made planes and... well, missiles.

What is it with all these brothers? Chirac didn't have one, mercifully. One Chirac was enough, it seems - though he was far better than his successor.

Today's Socialist Party's a lot better than in Mitterrand's day, btw, though I far preferred Jospin to Royal - his early elimination in 2002 was a nasty foretaste of what's happened today.

Isn't this cute. He's the owner of a textile factory. (that went bankrupt in 2005) AND he's the Vice-President of the MEDEF and the Chairman of the French Union of TEXTILE workers. And we thought the Bush family was bad. These guys have CRIMINAL wrote all over them. Poor France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Sarkozy
Guillaume Sarkozy
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Guillaume Georges Didier Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (born June 18, 1951, in Paris, 17th arrondissement), simply known as Guillaume Sarkozy, is a French textile entrepreneur and vice-president of the MEDEF, the French union of employers. Guillaume Sarkozy is the older brother of famous French politician Nicolas Sarkozy.

He was enrolled in the private Catholic middle and high school Cours Saint-Louis de Monceau, and then in the public Lycée (High School) Janson-de-Sailly, both located in Paris. He holds an engineering degree from the École spéciale des travaux publics (ESTP) of Paris.

Guillaume Sarkozy started his career working on assignments at the Directorate (Office) of Public Safety (direction de la sécurité civile) inside the Ministry of Interior (1974-1976). He then joined IBM France where he was a sales engineer (1976-1979).

In 1979 he became COO of Tissage de Picardie and has been its president and CEO since 1981. He also became CEO of Tissage Rinet (1985) and Velveterie (1990), which he merged with Tissage de Picardie. He is now the owner of the company, having bought it from the family of his first wife. Tissage de Picardie is one of the world leaders in upholstery fabrics. Located in the Somme département, it employs around 120 people, and exports about 65% of its production. It's declared bankrupt on the 22sd of September 2005.

Guillaume Sarkozy entered the CNPF, later renamed MEDEF, where he was the chairman of the Committee on Social Welfare (commission de la protection sociale). He is now the vice-president of the MEDEF (since 2000), and has also been the chairman of the French Union of Textile Industries (Union des industries textiles, or UIT) since 2000.

Guillaume Sarkozy is an active member of the MEDEF, who advocates a liberalisation of the French economy. He is often seen as the man behind the bold reforms agenda pushed forward by the MEDEF since the late 1990s. Allegedly, he was denied a more outspoken profile due to the political career of his brother. The close association of Nicolas Sarkozy, a presidential candidate in the 2007 elections, with a prominent executive of the foremost employer's union would make him the target of accusations of bias in favor of big business, which would run contrary to the ideal idea of the French presidency free from the influence of lobbies; furthermore, Guillaume Sarkozy's liberal positions may reinforce the idea that his brother is an ideological "ultra-liberal", while Nicolas Sarkozy seeks an image of pragmatism. It is said that this is the reason why he was prevented from running for the presidency of the MEDEF in 2005. He will remain vice-president only, but he is supporting the election of Francis Mer, the former French Finance Minister, in what has been dubbed the "Mer-Sarkozy ticket". However, in the end, Laurence Parisot was elected.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Sarkozy"
Categories: 1951 births | Living people | People from Paris | French businesspeople
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Sarkozy

... not the workers' one. I don't think even the anti-socialist unions would stand for that!

I thought that was called cartels?

... but this one's more a pressure group for textile bosses generally, as Medef (the old CNPF) is for bosses generally.

Labor unions are more usually syndicats, now grouped into five rival confédérations according to political taste. So there's a "CGT textile-cuir-habillement" section for the main left union movement and textile groupings for each of its rivals.

He's been threatening to sue anyone who writes about it...

French Roast, served up American style
France's media has acquired the news tastes of tabloids
By Anne-Sophie Lechevallier
http://www.globaljournalist.org/magazine/2005-4/french-roast.html

Courtesy of Paris Match Magazine
France's Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy looking presidential with his wife, Cecilia, and his son Louis in a 2002 photograph exclusively in Paris Match. Three years later, leaks of the couple's extramarital affairs threatened Sarkozy's carefully crafted public image.The splashy photo spread says it all: a young, charismatic politician -- the man who could be president -- with his stately, dutiful wife and playful little boy. If U.S. President John F. Kennedy comes to mind, he should.

But it's not the 1960s. It's not even America. It's France, and the man is Nicolas Sarkozy. And if you mistake him for JFK, that's fine by him.

The journalism of Camelot has finally dawned in France. Once the unique signature of an American media obsessed with its own political royalty, John F. and Jackie Kennedy, this "celebritization" of politicians and intense fascination with the private lives of public figures is commonplace among the French media.

Embroiled in a personal drama of his own making, Nicolas Sarkozy, France's minister of the interior, is now its political celebrity du jour. As the controversial leader of the Union for Popular Majority, the main right-wing political party, Sarkozy is a potential frontrunner for the 2007 presidential election.

Of late, critical matters, such as the turbulent riots that plagued France in the fall, dominated headlines and tested Sarkozy's political mettle and might. Only days before the riots began, Sarkozy, an outspoken crusader against crime and gangs, used the derogatory term racailles (rabble, scum) to describe lawless urban youth in France's poorer neighborhoods. Although highly criticized in the media for this remark, he later announced the deportations of all foreigners convicted of rioting to quell the unrest in the midst of a relatively subdued President Chirac. His popularity with the French public remains high. How he emerges from the riots' aftermath will likely determine his bid for the presidency. But so could his estrangement from wife Cecilia, who, by her own admission, is no Jackie O.

If Sarkozy's political strategy is to monopolize the news by fashioning himself and his family after a beloved American presidential dynasty, he is well on his way; coverage is constant. For example, he is the first politician to have been invited three times to "100 Minutes Pour Convaincre," a political television magazine on France 2, one of the major national public networks.

Sarkozy likes to think of himself as a great connoisseur of the media. Politically savvy and well-skilled at handling reporters assigned to follow his trail, he is on a first-name basis with many journalists. Extensive media training has taught him to use those short and efficient sentences that are easily transformed into headlines and sound bites.

Typically, three kinds of stories are published or broadcast about Sarkozy. First, there are those that describe and analyze his political acts such as when he makes frequent, on-the-scene announcements, which often emphasize security and immigration. After rushing to the site of a murder in July, Sarkozy told the French daily Le Figaro, "I am trying to win the communication and action battle."

A second type of story occurs when journalists expose his frequent quarrels with other politicians, most notably with President Jacques Chirac or Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. These are stories that will likely increase as presidential candidates rise to the surface and elections loom near.

The third and last type of French media coverage of Sarkozy is as American as apple pie -- where the news of a politician's personal problems often trumps public policy developments and important socioeconomic concerns.

For example, in early October of this year Sarkozy was featured on front news pages as having suffered a migraine that prevented him from attending his weekly ministerial meeting with rival de Villepin. A story of such a personal nature would likely not have been run prior to 2002, when he was first appointed interior minister.

However, for the past three years the minister has by his own hand put himself and his family on stage for all the media to see. Sarkozy has an 8-year-old son, Louis, with his second wife Cecilia, who he wed in 1999. Despite Cecilia's evident passion for politics, she never ran for public office but remained clearly by her husband's side as his chief-of-staff until this past June. This was the first time in France that a political couple leveraged their high-profile union as a public relations tool. The media were quick to compare them to the American presidential families, such as the Kennedys and the Clintons.

Over the years, the Sarkozys also invited the media to cover their holidays by photographing them biking or jogging. One of the most famous pictures of the family was published in the weekly magazine Paris Match in May 2002. The caption specifies that it is a replica of a similar picture of young John Kennedy Jr., known affectionately as "John-John," playing in the White House Oval Office.

Sarkozy's strategic use of his young son for political gain was also clearly evident when, during the November 2004 convention where he was elected president of UMP, his son was broadcast on a giant TV screen saying, "Good luck my daddy."

The Sarkozy family's Hollywood-style story suddenly ended this year. The earliest signs of trouble appeared last April when Cecilia Sarkozy gave an interview to a TV magazine. Asked whether she preferred being compared to Jackie Kennedy or to Hillary Clinton, she replied: "I don't see myself as a First Lady. That bores me. I'm not politically correct. I potter about in jeans, in combat or cowboy boots."

One month later, the minister cancelled his live evening news appearance on France's most popular channel, TF1. That was Sunday, May 22. Immediately thereafter, the media linked the cancellation to marital problems. Rumors were spreading all over the country: every newsroom knew that Cecilia had left the family house for another man. Strangely enough, no detailed story was published about that speculation in France. Sarkozy, however, quickly transformed his private anguish into a public plea for sympathy. He granted a public television channel, France 3, an interview May 23 for its evening news program and declared, "Like millions of families, mine is going through difficulties. We are currently overcoming them."

It was the French-language Swiss daily Le Matin that finally ran a May 25 cover story breaking the news of the separation details and of Cecilia's affair with a prominent advertising executive. At the time, the story was considered hearsay, and Sarkozy filed a lawsuit at Le Matin claiming violation of the French law protecting private life. He is suing for one euro. The action was filed in France where Le Matin is also sold and as of GJ press time, the case is still in litigation.

Le Matin's story was not referenced in French newspapers. It took just over one month for the drama to literally invade France's media sphere. Then, five newspapers and magazines all dedicated their June 30 covers to the interior minister's personal turmoil. A national daily, Le Parisien, announced "Cecilia's Choices" on its cover. A left-wing weekly news magazine, La Nouvel Observateur, led with a front-page picture of Nicolas Sarkozy and asked, "Populist Drift or Hysterics?" The right-wing daily Le Figaro published an interview with Sarkozy with a quote headline, "My ideas are progressing." A right-wing weekly, Le Point, chose "The Sarkozy Enigma" as its headline. Paris Match printed a year-old photo of the couple with the title, "The Summer of Challenges." But not one of these stories leaked the name of Cecilia Sarkozy's new lover.

Then came a fateful day in August when Paris Match ran a cover story featuring an incriminating paparazzi photo of Cecilia with Richard Attias, an advertising executive for Publicis Group who traveled between New York and Paris. This last story is said to have infuriated the minister. In addition to being portrayed as a deceived husband, Sarkozy supposedly felt betrayed by Arnaud Lagardère, a close family friend and chairman of French air, defense and media conglomerate Lagardère who, through his subsidiary company HFM, also happens to be the owner of Paris Match.

The political soap opera continued in October when the daily newspaper France Soir revealed the name of Sarkozy's mistress, Anne Fulda, a journalist at Le Figaro assigned to cover him. She has since switched beats in order to avoid any conflict of interests. And once again, citing the law protecting private life, Nicolas Sarkozy and now-girlfriend Fulda announced they would sue France Soir and the Agence France-Presse, the state-owned news wire that uncovered the mistress' identity. Thus far, the French print media have refused to run any of the numerous photos of the new couple that are on the market.

For the first time in French media history, public politics and personal intimacy are being mixed together. In France, there has been a long-standing tradition of respecting the privacy of public persons, provided that private circumstances have no impact on professional responsibilities.

Not so long ago, editors in France were almost unanimously shocked by the nonstop media coverage of American President Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. And, during the 14-year span of his presidency, François Mitterrand frequented his mistress and their daughter under the eyes of every journalist in town. Nevertheless, the media did not reveal the love story until 1993 when Paris Match ran a picture story -- though only with the president's consent. In the case of Sarkozy's personal drama, the media have not been as sure of their decisions. Those who choose not to investigate his story because of an alleged lack of newsworthiness still convey any developments by running the reportage of competitors.

As evidence of their insecurity with this new reporting trend, several newspapers have explained their reasons for the continuing coverage of the Sarkozy scandal to readers -- an unusual occurrence. The daily left-wing newspaper Liberation wrote: "Whereas the name of the Figaro journalist has been available for weeks in the newsrooms and on the Web, Liberation has decided, in the name of the respect of private life, not to mention her relationship with Nicolas Sarkozy." On the other side, France Soir, which had originally revealed the name of the woman, justified its actions in an editorial and claimed, "Nicolas Sarkozy's private life has an impact on his public life, a political impact."

As conflicted as some French media are about whether and how to report on Sarkozy's affair, the minister's communications advisers don't know how to react. One advisor was quoted anonymously in Le Monde saying, "As far as such an intimate event is concerned, any media planning is useless." Through all of this, only one person looked like he knew what he was doing. In putting the press on trial for covering news of his own making, Nicolas Sarkozy finally took political advantage of his personal controversy. He so much as admitted it to Le Monde at the end of June: "It creates effect. So far, one was speaking about my personal ambition. Now, one speaks about my humanity."

One may have been hard pressed to link humanity with Sarkozy in light of the interior minister's latest struggle with the media. In the midst of France's riots, Sarkozy allegedly used his iron-fisted approach to suppress the publication of Cecilia's authorized yet controversial autobiography, at her request. After a private meeting with the publisher, Vincent Barbare, publication was halted. However, Sarkozy's office has not confirmed his intervention. The book's author, Valerie Domain, was quoted in The Guardian as saying Sarkozy's action was "an act of censorship that has completely floored me." It's unclear whether a star-struck media will feel the same. But it begs the question: as Sarkozy continues to bite the hands of the press that feeds his Hollywood-style persona, how long will it take before the press bites back?

Anne-Sophie Lechevallier is a freelance journalist working for the weekly magazine Paris Match. She writes frequently on the topic of economics.
http://www.globaljournalist.org/magazine/2005-4/french-roast.html

I wonder who'll buy the Hollywood rights?