<img src="https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/21/0/0/4724/3149/664/0/75/0/d0d6938_1692600620203-gbs1734008.jpg" srcset=" https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/21/0/0/4724/3149/556/0/75/0/d0d6938_1692600620203-gbs1734008.jpg 556w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/21/0/0/4724/3149/600/0/75/0/d0d6938_1692600620203-gbs1734008.jpg 600w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/21/0/0/4724/3149/664/0/75/0/d0d6938_1692600620203-gbs1734008.jpg 664w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/21/0/0/4724/3149/700/0/75/0/d0d6938_1692600620203-gbs1734008.jpg 700w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/21/0/0/4724/3149/800/0/75/0/d0d6938_1692600620203-gbs1734008.jpg 800w" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 556px, 100vw" alt="Nicolas Sarkozy at the studio recording of the audio version of his previous book, " le="" temps="" des="" tempêtes",="" june="" 2,="" 2021."="" width="100%" height="auto">
Storytelling went hand in hand with his political career. Nicolas Sarkozy has applied the same technique to the three volumes of his memoirs, which have been accompanied by polished, scripted releases. After Passions (2019), and Le Temps des Tempêtes ("The Time of Storms", 2020), both bestsellers, the former French president – who has always been obsessed with sales and audience figures – hopes to repeat the feat with this latest volume, Le Temps des Combats ("The Time of Battles"), covering the years 2009-2011, the heart of his presidential term (2007-2012).
For this latest book, he has left his long-time publishing house, L'Observatoire, for Fayard, owned by his friend Arnaud Lagardère and soon to be controlled by another of his close friends, Vincent Bolloré. "I wanted to take the reader by the hand, to let them experience these years at the Elysée as if they had been at my side throughout the events," writes the political pseudo-retiree, who joined the Lagardère Group's supervisory board in 2020.
Even before the book's release, the extracts on Russia and a lengthy interview in Le Figaro Magazine caused controversy. The former president says France is wrong to deliver "weapons in a continuous flow to one of the belligerents," and criticizes the "advantageous posturing" of those calling for support for Ukraine "to the very end." "Is it reasonable to wage war without actually waging it, and to wage a conflict without ever bothering to specify the goals and objectives we're trying to achieve?" he asks, deeming any return to the past to be illusory in territorial terms, be it for Crimea or the Donbas. In both cases, he suggested holding referendums supervised by the international community.
Ukraine, a "bridge between Europe and Russia," should not join NATO, or even the European Union, and must remain "neutral," he asserts, calling for renewed dialogue with Vladimir Putin, whom he never found "irrational" when they met. "It is the duty of the French president to keep the path of dialogue with Russia open," he urges. These words quickly gave rise to a multitude of indignant reactions. MP Natalia Pouzyreff, president of the France-Russia friendship group at the Assemblée Nationale, called on the former head of state not to rewrite history.
In his book of 592 flowing pages, Sarkozy looks back on his ties with his foreign counterparts. There are some savory scenes, including his appalling lunch at the Elysée Palace with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with whom he agrees on nothing, as diplomats looked on in dismay. And his repeated impatience with Angela Merkel, whose "pusillanimity" and risk aversion he criticizes. "She would agree to go along, but what a waste of time and energy," he says, summing up France-Germany relations as "a way of the cross that is as essential as it is boring." Barack Obama, whose celebrated arrival on the international scene Sarkozy resented, is not treated any better. The American is described as "cold, introverted and only moderately interested in all those surrounding him."
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