Sharp criticism and laudatory encouragement follow one another in Nicolas Sarkozy’s new book, Le Temps des combats, to be published on August 22. The former President of the Republic takes advantage of a retrospective of his visit to the Élysée between 2009 and 2011 to tour political figures, from Marine Le Pen to Gérald Darmanin via Valérie Pécresse, who sometimes receive his scathing attacks , sometimes his compliments with the appearance of dubbing.
The president of the Republicans (LR), Éric Ciotti, is rewarded with the title of “good surprise of recent years”. The deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, who is trying to orchestrate the ideological as well as the financial recovery of his party, would not have “lack of courage and energy lately”, according to the former tenant of the Élysée.
Nicolas Sarkozy is full of praise for “(his) former minister” Laurent Wauquiez whom he “always considered the most brilliant of his generation”. But with the compliments come the caveats. He thus pushes the potential candidate of the right for the presidential election of 2027 to “put himself in danger by leaving his comfort zone”, with the hope that the two barons manage to “impose their ideas and their leadership”, convinced that “this family is not doomed to disappear”.
The judgment is more severe, although compassionate, for the LR candidate of 2022. “Not choosing our candidate was a personal heartbreak”, says the one who supported Emmanuel Macron in the last presidential election. He justifies his choice: “However willing she was, she was not ready. She had neither the team nor the maturity to face such an ordeal. Nicolas Sarkozy wants proof of this in the historically low result of Valérie Pécresse in the first round (4.8%), a “disaster” which filled him with “great sadness”.
This bittersweet feeling towards his political family turns into an assumed criticism when it comes to the president of the MoDem, François Bayrou. Without holding back, Nicolas Sarkozy believes that “procrastinating is an alternative for him”, concluding that they were “probably not made for (to) get along”. Arrived in third position in the presidential election in 2007, the High Commissioner for Planning is harshly portrayed. “Perhaps a flash will end up opening the eyes of this pusillanimous personality and that he will finally start to act rather than comment,” ironically hopes the former head of state.
His successor at the Élysée, François Hollande, has not escaped criticism from the former mayor of Neuilly, who accuses him of having seriously undermined the French nuclear industry, by “squandering his heritage , destroy(ing) a sector of excellence, ruin(ing) its energy independence”. Nicolas Sarkozy does not exculpate him further for his role in France’s “serious state of unpreparedness” at the time of the Covid crisis. The former boss of the UMP even allows himself a mocking pike: “Decidedly, the socialist leader has always spent more time looking for the right word rather than the right program!”
Still on the left, Ségolène Royal, her former opponent, was awarded “the palm of demagoguery”. The victorious candidate of 2007 also reiterates a retort struck during the campaign in the face of accusations of espionage of the candidate by his teams: “To seek what? His program? It’s not an investigation, it’s an exploration!” If he admits that the word was not “tender”, he assures that “the future (him) proved him right”. Nicolas Sarkozy again indulges in sarcasm, assuring that “the incomparable Ségolène Royal broke all the boundaries of ridicule” during one of her statements.
The tone softens for Marine Le Pen. “I never liked his demonization,” announces Nicolas Sarkozy, refuting the accusations of anti-republicanism against him. He also affirms that the deputy of Pas-de-Calais has “progressed a lot”: “She knows her files better and knows how to expose them with more calm, force and moderation.” But he then curries the former president of the RN for “her lack of experience, of culture, her ignorance of the workings of the State, the excess of some of her convictions, the personality of many of her elected officials” who made for him “this impossible, even unworthy choice”.
Gérald Darmanin has managed to curry favor with the former Minister of the Interior, who now supports his candidacy for 2027. “So far, the facts have largely proven him right. Will he be able to take another step, or even the final step, that which leads to the presidency of the Republic? I wish him, because he has obvious qualities”, dares to advance the former tenant of the Élysée. “We are friends, and his success would make me happy… He is, in any case, one of the most promising forties”, he concludes.
Emmanuel Macron’s predecessor gives him little space in Le Temps des combats. The current President of the Republic does not obtain clear disapproval from Nicolas Sarkozy, who admits the difficulty of the consecutive crises that Emmanuel Macron has had to face. However, Nicolas Sarkozy rejects the nickname of “master of time”, often attached to the president. “Emmanuel Macron imagines that he can be the master of time. (…) For my part, I believe that time does not belong to us and that the speed of execution is the best, if not to say the only room for maneuver of a President of the Republic. In this, I differ from the current president,” he maintains.
