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

Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III
period; he even escaped (briefly) to the United States in the late 1830s. His successive and
aborted early coups (first in Strasbourg in October 1836 and second in Boulogne in August
1840) precipitated his fate. He was consequently imprisoned during eight years by Louis
Phillipe’s regime to expurgate his misdemeanors. These desert-crossing periods, identified by
Thompson (1955) as “the pretender”s (1831-1840) and “the outlaw”s (1840-1848) periods were
not without consequence in the shaping of his soon-to-be-applied ideology. As a matter of fact,
these years were devoted to both the refining and the maturing of his political thought; Louis
Napoleon was never as prolific in writings, either books (a dozen in total) or newspaper’s
columns and articles, as during his struggling years. His most achieved work was by the way the
famous Des Idées Napoléoniennes written in jail but published in 1860, more than a decade
after his accession to power.
The young lawyer Sarkozy was as well far from imagining the turn of events his sudden
involvement in politics will hold. Actually, and after a rather « typical » initial political career
accelerated by fortuitous yet fruitful encounters, he made a series of political miscalculations
that could have costed him presidential horizons. As a matter of fact, and during the
presidential election of 1995, he took position for Balladur against his early days’ protector
Chirac. He resigned his position of spokesperson of the government in the favor of campaign
director of Balladur. The (unexpected- all the polls predicted a comfortable score) defeat of this
latter was going to plunge him into a disgrace not only from the newly elected President (who
showed by the past a contagious and long-lasting resentment toward his betrayers) but also
from the French Right in its entirety who blamed him for both his political treason and his lack
of loyalty toward Chirac. This desert-crossing period lasted until the last months of 1998 when
A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/
6