01.06.2013 Views

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

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

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Prologue<br />

<strong>Neo</strong>-<strong>Bonapartism</strong>? A <strong>parallel</strong> <strong>between</strong> <strong>Nicolas</strong> <strong>Sarkozy</strong> <strong>and</strong> Napoleon III<br />

The early years… Or the long <strong>and</strong> uneven path toward supreme power<br />

“Probably the most profound insight of the post-1960s women’s movement has been its<br />

recognition that "the personal is political": this well-known quotation of the Australian-born<br />

British activist Peter Tatchell, initially referring to the post-WWII feminist movements in<br />

Europe, was abundantly quoted at the service of the personal/political equation. In fact, this<br />

very quote served as the contemporary st<strong>and</strong>ard of the Lockean tradition of the theory of<br />

mind which outlined not only the correlation but also the causation <strong>between</strong> the personal<br />

experiences <strong>and</strong> the emergence of a given political consciousness. It is from this very<br />

theoretical lens that both Louis Napoleon Bonaparte’s <strong>and</strong> <strong>Nicolas</strong> <strong>Sarkozy</strong>’s respective<br />

journeys toward the highest position in French politics will be examined via three main<br />

<strong>parallel</strong>isms rooted in their personal backgrounds.<br />

The first battle to be fought for these two politicians started from the cradle, yet for<br />

different reasons. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte endured until his last breathe the accusations of<br />

illegitimacy related to his supposedly non-belonging to the Bonapartes’ bloodline. In fact, his<br />

mother’s - Hortense De Beauharnais (Napoleon’s stepdaughter) – libertarian way of life<br />

reinforced the rumors of romantic <strong>and</strong> extra-marital liaisons; even in official reports <strong>and</strong><br />

correspondence 1 . The lack of physical resemblances <strong>between</strong> the little Louis Charles <strong>and</strong> his<br />

imperial uncle <strong>and</strong> their extreme dissemblance in terms of temperament <strong>and</strong> character (a fact<br />

1 Confer the French ambassador at The Hague’s report dated of April 21 st , 1808, as cited by<br />

Thompson, 1967.<br />

A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/<br />

3

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!