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

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Introduction Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III “We need to break up with Victor Hugo’s tradition, and like Philippe Séguin, we should rehabilitate Napoleon III’s memoire, substituting to the caricatured character described by Badinguet the vision of a modern Emperor who was careful about the highness of France” Bernard Accoyer, president of the French National Assembly Philippe Séguin’s funeral homage, 12 th January 2010, Paris. “If we want to restore hope to the French people, great changes are essential”: these were the first words of the candidate Sarkozy after the official announcement of his winning of the French presidential election, the 6 th of May 2007. As a matter of fact, the up-to-now years of his presidency were effectively rich in “changes”, to the extent that the substantial wind of reforms and restructuring that blew over France was quickly summarized into a nickname that follows Sarkozy until nowadays: the “hyper-president” (a nickname comprising other aspects of his governance’s style, such as his extreme activism and his omnipresence in the media). Observers of French politics, political analysts, and even journalists and editorialists tried thus to define the Sarkozysme in many successive attempts that found their roots either in French history or in contemporary (and supposedly) inspiring political leaderships. Many comparative paths were followed either within Europe (UK, and Italy principally) or overseas (mainly the US). Sarkozy was then designated as the French Tony Blair, following his own saying in the news broadcast of France 2 the 27 th of June 2007: “I did my Tony Blair”, and this latter’s appraisals, and mainly his flattering article published in The Time: “Sarkozy, person of the year 2008” (Blair, 2008). Another European comparative trend emerged as well, launched by the French thinker’s – Pierre Mussot - book “The Sarkoberlusconism” (2008), and labeled by the latest editorial of A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 8
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III The Post as the “Male Axis” (“Sarkozy-Berlusconi: l’Axe du Male”). Finally, an Obama- comparison was regularly evoked in various French political blogs and talk-shows. None of these comparisons being satisfactory while trying to analyze comprehensively the Sarkozism, a turnover was taken that ended up in a historical comparative perspective. The 23 rd president of the French Republic and 6 th president under the Fifth Republic Regime seems to resemble Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in his conception of politics. Newspaper articles filled with caricatures of Sarkozy wearing a Second Empire’s helmet or riding a Napoleonian horse multiplied in the French and even international press. An isolated event launched the turning of the analysis downward in French politics: the 10 th of December 2007, Christian Estrosi, minister of Overseas Territories and mayor of Nice, travelled to the United Kingdom to accomplish a mission he was entrusted with by Sarkozy in person: to ask for the ashes of Napoleon III still in London (it is worth here reminding that Napoleon III died in exile there after the collapse of his regime in 1870-71). From the latter, this historic-political rehabilitation raised many questions among which the one (legitimately) brought up by Robert: “are the current French authorities seeing in an authoritarian regime, yet very liberal at the economic level, a model to be followed?” (2007). The goal of this capstone research is therefore to examine this quickly-made correlation through critically evaluating the resemblances and dissimilarities between the 19 th century emperor and the contemporary French head of state. Doing so requires an analysis of both of Napoleon III’s and Sarkozy’s politics at four levels: their attributes, mechanisms, and key concepts of political governance, their respective political economy (and acquaintances with the economic affairs milieu), their relationship with and reliance on the media, and finally their foreign policy. This capstone’s feuille de route will then legitimize or deny Sarkozy’s affiliation to A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/ 9
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