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

Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III
in the way we build Europe”, he has asserted many times since” (2008). As a matter of fact, on
the very day of his accession to power, the freshly-elected Sarkozy declared that “France had
returned to Europe” (Gordon, 2007). The latter proved to be an euphemism regarding all the
efforts the French head of state deployed in the European arena, and especially under his six-
months presidency of the European Union (from July to December 2008). As a matter of fact,
Sarkozy inaugurated a never-seen before European activism, and extended some aspects of his
domestic policy to the European level, leading in his disruptive wake the usually-slow European
bureaucracy. Starting from the acknowledgement that France is “too small on its own to be a
major global player, Sarkozy believed that the European Union can be leveraged to support
French designs” (Gordon, 2007). To start with, the French head of state started with
engineering a rapprochement with his two main neighboring powers: Brown’s United Kingdom,
and Merkel’s Germany. Second, he initiated a seduction’s enterprise of the European
bureaucracy. As explained by the European Constitutional Law Review in date of February 2009,
Sarkozy’s visit in December 2008 to the European Parliament, the “temple of democracy” to
quote him, was decisive in his coup d’état over Europe. In fact, and as detailed in the same
source, Sarkozy performed a noticeable campaigning via “an inspired speech calling on the
members of Parliament not to unravel the package of agreements by making amendments; and
the Parliament, appreciating what it had seen, complied, voting the whole program into law
almost immediately afterward. The result was a legislative tempo not only unheard of in the
Union but in many a contemporary democracy” (2009). He also succeeded in convincing EU
officials to support the French candidacy to the International Monetary Fund’s managing
direction (Dominique Strauss-Kahn). As a matter of fact, and even before the start of Sarkozy’s
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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