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

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Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III denounced an “unbearable mark of media allegiance to the political power”(2006) while relating the firing of Alain Génestar, director of Paris Match, because he published a cover story showing Cecilia Sarkozy with her lover in Paris streets in June 2006. Infuriated, Sarkozy interrupted his friend’s – Laguardère – holidays in the Bahamas, urging him to return back to Paris to “handle this impertinence”(Dély & Hassoux, 2008). Actually and as rightly pointed out by Bénilde during the 2007 presidential race, the will of controlling the media is quite usual from a politician; what is more puzzling is the self-enslavement of the community of media owners which she identified as caused by their “overestimation of his politics during their coverage of its candidacy which make them occult his ministerial failures, and mainly the eradication of violence, that increased of 12% between 2002 and 2006” (2007). Be it self- censorship or presidential interference, media control in France’s Sarkozy gave rise to a broad wave of protests emanating either from professionals like Gozlan, a Marianne editorialist who declared that Sarkozy is “really a danger for the freedom of expression and critical sense; it means there is a kind of court around him; it’s the first time we see such a phenomenon” (Kirby, 2010) or from politicians such as Arnaud Montebourg who deplored the fact that the “mainstream media are becoming markedly concentrated in his (Sarkozy’s) favour” (Willsher, 2010). On that, Sarkozy repeatedly denied any direct interfering in the media sphere, in a time his spin doctor since the late 1980s, Thierry Saussez, did not contradict this accusation and declared to the BBC that “the president enjoys keeping the press on its toes” (Kirby, 2008). At this point, the previously cited Times saying according to which “Louis Bonaparte had put civil liberties under the heel of his boots” (1907) as reported by Regnault founds some echoes in the Sarkozy presidency. A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 58
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III Another aspect of the president’s clientelism is his not-exclusively media-oriented habit of returning favors to friends. While still minister of Budget and Finances, in the preparatory phase of his candidacy to the presidency, he fought for “maintaining the controversial tax abatement (7650 Euros per year) of journalists” (Bénilde, 2006). One year later, an « extremely shocking » event (cf the French Union of Journalism) revived the suspicions: as reported by The Economist, the former campaign director of Sarkozy, Laurent Solly, was appointed head of TF1, supposedly after a phone call of Sarkozy to his old friend Martin Bouygues (2007). Other examples of the influence the president exerts on the media decision-making circles were noted down by The Guardian whose journalist Willsher was astonished while underlining that “two radio satirists (Stéphane Guillon and Didier Porte) described by Sarkozy as "insulting, vulgar and nasty", were sacked one week later by their direction” (2010). Valérie Domain, a Gala journalist, was another victim of Sarkozy’s disgrace: in 2005, when she decided to write a book about Sarkozy’s failures as a minister of the Interior, her editor, Vincent Barbare, was called in Place Beauvau; her publishing contract was annulled and few times later she was fired for obscure reasons from Gala (Bénilde, 2008). All these incidents could have gone unnoticed since they were disseminated in the continuous overflow of presidential presence in the news but they all surfaced after Le Monde launched a crusade against Sarkozy’s monitoring of the sector. This publication’s campaign compiled grave infringements to the freedom of press since Sarkozy’s access to power. First of all, Le Monde along with Le Canard Enchainé accused the Elysée of spying on journalists via illegal phone- tapping supposedly by using the DCRI’s (Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur) services. This accusation was confirmed by one of Sarkozy’s special advisors (Henri Guaino) in A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 59
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