Before being shaken up by the appearance of the internet and the revolution of social networks, television was the setting for the main political contests. Theater of murderous debates or sequences that have become cults, the small screen offered a multitude of highlights under the Fifth Republic. This summer, Le Figaro tells you behind the scenes of these meetings.
“I have to confess something to you, it’s that I was inspired by you…”, says Nicolas Sarkozy, with a mischievous smile, facing Laurent Fabius. On March 6, 2012, a month and a half before the first round of the presidential election, here is the boxer back in the ring. The president-candidate, who is seeking a second term, participates that evening in his first major program in prime time in his capacity. High point of the evening: a contest between the boss of the right and a socialist figure, an exercise whose last episode dated back to 2007, for the debate between two rounds which had opposed Nicolas Sarkozy to Ségolène Royal. This time, while waiting for the announced future duel with François Hollande, it is the former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, who is on the set of the France 2 talk show “Words and Deeds”.
The polls may be unanimous on a return of the Socialist Party to the Élysée, Nicolas Sarkozy wants to thwart the forecasts. Despite apparent fatigue, he is trying to find the offensive recipe that had made him successful five years earlier. The best defense being the attack, he decides to embark on a strange contest with his opponent: a kind of “who better to know” of the anti-Holland. A step in which he will be well helped by the start of his interlocutor, who immediately attacks him on his “unpleasant and violent” accusations against the PS candidate. Reading ostensibly highlighted files, which the camera displays on the screen, Nicolas Sarkozy takes malicious pleasure in quoting his adversary: ”To be elected President of the Republic, I believe that there are two people, myself part, who have the build: Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Martine Aubry…”Do you think that’s more pleasant than what I said?”, he pretends to question. “And, as you are a man who has ideas, you said in 2011: “Frankly, you imagine Hollande President of the Republic…? We dream…” he continues immediately.
Two arrows which embarrass Laurent Fabius and force him to justify himself painfully: “I did not always have good relations with François Hollande. And, initially, he was not a good candidate. But he got into the fight a year ago. He was brilliantly appointed, he showed tenacity, he was able to say yes, he was able to say no, and in particular no to your re-election ”, defends the former PS president of the National Assembly.
But Nicolas Sarkozy does not budge. Ironically, the outgoing president says he finds “very pleasant” that Laurent Fabius, “who frequented François Hollande for thirty years and who makes such cruel and brutal judgments, has changed because he (him) entrusted (responsibilities). “It proves, Mr. Fabius, that we can convince you easily,” he asserts. And to be summoned in return to keep the discussion at “the level that (she) must have”. What Nicolas Sarkozy answers, there still, by a pirouette to obstruct his interlocutor: It is because I wanted to keep the debate at a certain height that I did not quote what you had said on François Hollande when you compare it to a “wild strawberry”. Guaranteed effect.
To regain the advantage in this debate which escapes him, the socialist elephant then engages in the discussion on the results of the five-year term which is ending. The occasion of a pass of arms where Laurent Fabius taunts Nicolas Sarkozy for having, during his mandate, “distanced himself from a certain number of values of the Republic”. “I don’t have many style lessons to receive from someone who was campaigning for DSK to be the next president…”, retorts the outgoing president tit for tat, in an allusion to the suspicions which then weigh on the former IMF boss, accused of rape by a maid in the United States. “For obvious reasons, DSK has disappointed the hopes of many people”, concedes Laurent Fabius, regretting that Nicolas Sarkozy persists in lacking “elegance” rather than “raising the level”. “Obviously! When we talk about you and your friends, we are inelegant, when it’s about me, it’s democracy, ”replies the head of state.
While the deaf dialogue between the two men gradually gives way to a slightly more technical part, Nicolas Sarkozy begs Laurent Fabius to move “from the posture of the professor to that of the one who listens”. “Not at all, I have too much respect for the function which is yours…”, replies the socialist mischievously. “Do not be excessively modest, it does not suit you outrageously”, retorts the president. “Modesty doesn’t really suit your complexion…”, he adds. Before driving the point home. “We never change, Mr. Fabius. I looked at your old debates, it’s the same. Tribute to you”, finally sneers the boss of the right. A last spade, in reference to a televised confrontation between Jacques Chirac and Laurent Fabius dating from 1985. Confrontation of which the socialist had been considered as the loser, in particular because of the condescension of which he had been accused at the time. If, twenty-seven years later, neither of the two opponents emerged victorious from this debate, the polls will end up deciding between the two camps a few weeks later. By consecrating the victory of François Hollande against Nicolas Sarkozy, at the end of a second round tighter than ever.
