Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...

Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III
according to which “No society can exist without morals; there is no good moral without
religion; religion is accordingly the only basis that provides the state with a firm and lasting
support” (both citations were retrieved by Duhamel in his “A Contemporary First Consul”,
2009). Again, a historical comparative perspective is to be adopted. As stated by Gildea, “in the
decade after 1848 organized religion, and especially the Catholic Church, was rehabilitated as a
principle of order and authority in a turbulent world” (2003). As a result, Napoleon III took
several measures that rehabilitated the grasp of the religious over the French life. First of all, he
reinstated religious programs at school, before calling upon and favoring the development of
religious congregations, that “reached a high point of recruitment in the 1855-1859 years”
(Gildea, 2003). Napoleon’s Empire was also committed to the defense of the Church’s interests
even with military means, and particularly when Napoleon III sent several garrisons of soldiers
to Rome to restore the authority of Pius IX. However, this harmonious collaboration ended up
abruptly on December 1864 after the Pope’s Syllabus of errors which was very critical of
authoritarianism and took a stand toward the “liberalization of politics”. This pamphlet was
censored in France by the Emperor and leads him to take position for the Italian reunification
camp against the Pope’s later on, as reported by Gildea (2003). Yet, and independently of these
troubled relations with Rome, religion was awarded a central place in the imperial ruling and
consequently supported the regime’s obsession with some of its key concepts, such as order
and morals.
Sarkozy’s same mania for discipline pushed him quite naturally in the following of Napoleon’s III
footsteps. “Unlike any French president in decades, Mr. Sarkozy sees a more open role for
religion in French society”, asserted Marquand (2008), to the extent that some observers
A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/
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