Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...
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<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 />
confidential business plan of this insurance company published by Médiapart revealed that<br />
Guillaume <strong>Sarkozy</strong>‘s firm plans to realize huge benefits from this reform (evaluated to 40 to 100<br />
billion Euros). In an overall environment already dominated by the Bétencourt’s sc<strong>and</strong>al (still in<br />
court, but dealing with a supposedly illegal financing of <strong>Sarkozy</strong>’s presidential campaign<br />
involving his Labor minister Eric Woerth), the latest revelation of Médiapart is not helping in<br />
laundering <strong>Sarkozy</strong> from the accusation of putting his personal friendships at the mercy of his<br />
political agenda <strong>and</strong> vice versa.<br />
Another likeness <strong>between</strong> the last emperor of France <strong>and</strong> its latest president is worth<br />
highlighting: their magnanimous relation to money. They both relied on the transparent<br />
accounting of the money they use vis a vis their electorate with a similarly liberalized relation to<br />
it. As rapported by Brézol <strong>and</strong> Crozière, the emperor addressed to the Belgian l’Indépendance<br />
“a long letter detailing the use his civilian list, <strong>and</strong> stipulated that His Majesty allocated to<br />
himself an annual sum of 5 millions of French Francs to be dispensed according to his own wish”<br />
(1912).<br />
In <strong>parallel</strong>, one of <strong>Sarkozy</strong>’s earliest amendments proposed to the Parliament was a personal<br />
raise of his annual salary from 101 488 to 240 000 Euros, what corresponds to a pay rise of 140<br />
% as reported by L’Express (2007). In an overall context of crisis, <strong>and</strong> with “a slumping economy<br />
<strong>and</strong> soaring inflation, this did not help in” getting any sympathy neither from the opposition or<br />
the population (Harris, 2008) <strong>and</strong> was considered as indecent in a country were half of the<br />
country barely earns a monthly salary of 1500 Euros. In addition, <strong>and</strong> as outlined by Matlack<br />
<strong>and</strong> Fouquet, “<strong>Sarkozy</strong>’s approach to political finance seemed refreshingly different: To prepare<br />
A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/<br />
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