Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy
Sarkozy in 2022
23rd President of France
In office 16 May 2007 – 15 May 2012
Prime Minister	François Fillon
Preceded by	Jacques Chirac
Succeeded by	François Hollande
Other offices held Minister of the Interior In office 2 June 2005 – 26 March 2007 Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin Preceded by Dominique de Villepin Succeeded by François Baroin In office 7 May 2002 – 30 March 2004 Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin Preceded by Daniel Vaillant Succeeded by Dominique de Villepin President of the General Council of Hauts-de-Seine In office 1 April 2004 – 14 May 2007 Preceded by Charles Pasqua Succeeded by Patrick Devedjian Minister of Finance In office 31 March 2004 – 29 November 2004 Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin Preceded by Francis Mer Succeeded by Hervé Gaymard Minister of Communications In office 19 July 1994 – 11 May 1995 Prime Minister Édouard Balladur Preceded by Alain Carignon Succeeded by Catherine Trautmann Minister of the Budget In office 30 March 1993 – 11 May 1995 Prime Minister Édouard Balladur Preceded by Michel Charasse Succeeded by François d'Aubert Government Spokesperson In office 30 March 1993 – 19 January 1995 Prime Minister Édouard Balladur Preceded by Louis Mermaz Succeeded by Philippe Douste-Blazy Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine In office 14 April 1983 – 7 May 2002 Preceded by Achille Peretti Succeeded by Louis-Charles Bary
Additional positions
(see § Offices and distinctions)
Personal details
Born	Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (1955-01-28) 28 January 1955 (age 69) Paris, France
Political party	The Republicans (2015–present)
Other political affiliations	Union of Democrats for the Republic (1974–1976) Rally for the Republic (1976–2002) Union for a Popular Movement (2002–2015)
Spouses	Marie-Dominique Culioli ​ ​ (m. 1982; div. 1996)​ Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz ​ ​ (m. 1996; div. 2007)​ Carla Bruni ​ (m. 2008)​
Children	4, including Jean
Education	Paris West University Nanterre La Défense (MA, DEA) Sciences Po (attended)
Signature

Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (/sɑːrˈkoʊzi/ sar-KOH-zee; French: [nikɔla pɔl stefan saʁkɔzi də naʒi bɔksa] ^ⓘ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as the president of France and co-prince of Andorra from 2007 to 2012.

Born in Paris, his roots are 1/2 Hungarian Protestant, 1/4 Greek Jewish, and 1/4 French Catholic. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine from 1983 to 2002, he was Minister of the Budget under Prime Minister Édouard Balladur (1993–1995) during François Mitterrand's second term. During Jacques Chirac's second presidential term he served as Minister of the Interior and as Minister of Finances. He was the leader of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party from 2004 to 2007.

He won the 2007 French presidential election by a 53.1% to 46.9% margin against Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party (PS) candidate. During his term, he faced the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the late-2000s recession, and the European sovereign debt crisis, the Russo-Georgian War (for which he negotiated a ceasefire), and the Arab Spring (especially in Tunisia, Libya, and Syria). He initiated the reform of French universities (2007) and the pension reform (2010). He married Italian-French singer-songwriter Carla Bruni in 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris.

In the 2012 French presidential election, Sarkozy was defeated by the PS candidate François Hollande, by a 3.2% margin. After leaving the presidential office, Sarkozy vowed to retire from public life before coming back in 2014, being reelected as UMP leader (renamed The Republicans in 2015). Being defeated at the Republican presidential primary in 2016, he retired from public life.

He was charged with corruption by French prosecutors in two cases, notably concerning the alleged Libyan interference in the 2007 French elections. In 2021, Sarkozy was convicted of corruption in two separate trials. His first conviction resulted in him receiving a sentence of three years, two of them suspended and one in prison; he has appealed against the ruling. For his second conviction, he received a one-year sentence, which he is allowed to serve under home confinement. In May 2023, Sarkozy lost an appeal to his corruption conviction.^[1]