Nicolas Sarkozy | president of France | Britannica.com president of France Nicolas Sarkozy, (born January 28, 1955, Paris, France), French politician who served as president of France (2007–12). Nicolas Sarkozy, 2006. AP Sarkozy was born to immigrant Greek and Hungarian parents. He qualified as a lawyer (1981) and pursued advanced studies in political science at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris (1979–81). An ambitious and highly skilled politician, Sarkozy in 1983 was elected mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine , where he served until 2002. He first made his mark on the national scene in 1993 when he became budget minister and official spokesman in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Balladur . Balladur had been put forward by rightist politicians, including Jacques Chirac , to serve as prime minister under Socialist Pres. François Mitterrand , with the idea that someone—such as Chirac—would contest the 1995 presidential election.

Sarkozy, however, encouraged Balladur to run for president himself and thereby earned the lasting enmity of Chirac, to whom he had once been very close. Balladur lost to Chirac, and Sarkozy was shut out of the subsequent centre-right government of 1995–97. In 2002, after Chirac’s reelection as president was quickly followed by the election of another centre-right administration, Sarkozy returned to office as interior minister, a post he held for nearly two years until he became finance minister in March 2004. Soon after, however, Chirac asked him to choose between his government post and becoming president of the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, the neo-Gaullist successor party to the Rally for the Republic that Chirac had founded. Sarkozy chose the UMP job and quit the government in November 2004. In the wake of the May 2005 referendum in which French voters rejected the proposed European Union (EU) constitution, Chirac invited Sarkozy to return as interior minister in a new government to be headed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin .

In late 2005 Sarkozy had to contend with three weeks of rioting in the less-affluent suburbs of Paris and other cities. Although critics blamed him for inciting the car-burning protesters by calling them “scum,” his supporters approved of his hard-line stance on law and order as well as his call for tougher immigration laws. In 2007 Sarkozy ran for president of France. He finished first in the initial round of voting on April 22, winning 31 percent of the vote. In the runoff election on May 6, Sarkozy defeated Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party , capturing 53 percent of the vote. Sarkozy was sworn in as president on May 16, 2007. He promised a “rupture” with France’s past, including radical economic reforms that would reduce taxes and liberalize the country’s labour market, and closer relations with the United States . Nicolas Sarkozy delivering a speech, May 2007. Thomas Coex—AFP/Getty Images Ringling Bros.

Folds Its Tent In the parliamentary elections of June 2007 Sarkozy’s UMP did less well than expected but still well enough to provide a comfortable majority for the new government of François Fillon, whom Sarkozy had appointed as prime minister just after assuming the presidency. In the subsequent cabinet reshuffle, Sarkozy made several surprising appointments, including the country’s first woman finance minister ( Christine Lagarde ), the first full cabinet member of North African origin (Rachida Dati), and a maverick Socialist (Bernard Kouchner) as foreign minister. Sarkozy also chose Socialists for several other key appointments. In the first few months of his presidency Sarkozy carried out some of his promised labour market and tax-cutting reforms. He decided not to scrap the 35-hour maximum on the standard workweek (a landmark Socialist law) but rather to use tax relief on overtime pay to moderate the law’s rigidity. Other new business-friendly laws restricted the right to strike and cut off unemployment payments to people who turned down certain job offers. Sarkozy also won narrow approval from the legislature for a constitutional change to limit the presidency to two five-year terms. Exploring Italy and France: Fact or Fiction?

While maintaining Europe as the prime focus of his foreign policy, Sarkozy was relatively pro-American compared with his predecessors. He showed signs of being more accommodating to the United States (especially with his active interest in a positive outcome in Iraq) and of being somewhat more troublesome to some of his euro zone partners (with his criticism of restrictive European Central Bank monetary policy). He also stressed EU complementarity to NATO , friendship with Israel, and a tough attitude toward Iranian nuclear weapons. In July 2007 Sarkozy drew worldwide attention for the prominent part he and his wife Cécilia played in gaining the release of six Bulgarian medics (charged with infecting children with HIV) who had been held in Libya since 1999. While applauding the release, some in France and the EU criticized Sarkozy’s high-profile involvement as well as his wife’s participation. Meanwhile, to the relief of many EU partners, Sarkozy agreed to put forward a revamped EU treaty for approval by the French parliament and not by referendum (as Chirac had tried and failed to do in 2005). His efforts in support of this agreement, the so-called Lisbon Treaty , were rewarded when the parliament ratified it in February 2008.

Sarkozy continued to play a vocal role in European affairs once France assumed the presidency of the EU, which rotates among member countries, that July. The same month, Sarkozy oversaw the launch of the Mediterranean Union, an international organization made up of Mediterranean rim countries in Europe , North Africa , and the Middle East . Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Although the French media had traditionally avoided close examination of the private lives of French leaders, Sarkozy’s personal problems were well known even before his presidency because of the publicity surrounding a temporary separation from Cécilia, his second wife. His divorce from her in October 2007 and his marriage to singer Carla Bruni in February 2008 drew increased media scrutiny. Many in France viewed the interest in Sarkozy’s private life as distasteful and inappropriate, and some accused Sarkozy himself of cultivating a flashy image to distract the public from negative aspects of his administration. David Buchan The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica Having fared poorly in French regional elections in March 2010, the UMP retained control of only 1 of 22 régions.

The results appeared to reflect French voters’ growing dissatisfaction with the president and his conservative party during a time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty. Domestic support for Sarkozy continued to erode throughout 2011, even as his profile rose internationally, because of his leadership role in the response to the European debt crisis . As the 2012 presidential campaign began in earnest, Sarkozy trailed Socialist challenger François Hollande in opinion polls and attempted to bolster his numbers with a return to the theme of immigration reform. On April 22, 2012, Sarkozy finished a close second to Hollande in the first round of presidential balloting, and the two faced each other again in a runoff two weeks later. On May 6, 2012, Hollande defeated Sarkozy, making Sarkozy only the second French president to fail in a reelection bid since the foundation of the Fifth Republic in 1958. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Although Sarkozy announced that the loss signaled his retirement from political life, it was widely believed that he was simply biding his time for an eventual return.

Sarkozy was considered a possible UMP candidate for the presidency in 2017, but his potential political ambitions were frustrated by a string of legal troubles related to the funding of his 2007 election campaign. In March 2013 he was investigated for improperly extracting donations from Liliane Bettencourt , the elderly, mentally frail heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire. Those proceedings were dropped in October 2013, but information obtained during that investigation, as well as a case involving some €50 million (almost $70 million) in illegal contributions from Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi , led to additional legal woes for Sarkozy and his inner circle. In July 2014 Sarkozy, his lawyer, and a French magistrate were formally charged with corruption. Investigators alleged that Sarkozy had promised the magistrate a plum position in Monaco in exchange for privileged information about charges pending against him. That investigation was suspended in September 2014, just days after Sarkozy announced his intention to seek the UMP presidency at the party congress in November 2014.

He won the leadership contest easily, but legal issues, including a new scandal involving alleged kickbacks from the sale of 45 helicopters to Kazakhstan, threatened to disrupt his political comeback. A strong showing by the UMP in regional elections in March 2015 enhanced Sarkozy’s position, and in May 2015 he led the effort to rebrand the UMP as the Republicans. In the first round of Republican presidential primary voting in November 2016, however, Sarkozy finished a distant third behind former prime ministers François Fillon and Alain Juppé. For the second time in four years, Sarkozy announced that he was withdrawing from politics. Nicolas Sarkozy - President (non-U.S.) - Biography.com Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa Zodiac Sign Nicolas Sarkozy served as France's 23rd president from 2007 to 2012. His term was marked by controversy, which included his marriage to Carla Bruni in 2008. IN THESE GROUPS Famous People Born in 1955 Synopsis Nicolas Sarkozy was born January 28, 1955 in Paris, France.

He studied political science and served as mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine for 20 years before entering national French politics. Sarkozy served as Interior Minister before being elected president in 2007. His term was marked by personal and political controversy, and he was defeated for reelection in 2012. Early Life and Career Nicolas Sarkozy was born on January 28, 1955 to Greek and Hungarian immigrants. He was the second of three children, and his father abandoned the family when he was a toddler. To support the family, his mother studied and became a lawyer. He was raised Catholic in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a wealthy suburb of Paris, and he later said that while growing up, he felt inferior to his wealthier classmates. Rise to Power Sarkozy's political career started early. He was elected to his first political office—Municipal Councillor of Neuilly-sur-Seine—at the age of 22. Six years later, he was elected mayor. He served as mayor for nearly 20 years, before entering national politics. In addition to serving as mayor, Sarkozy served as budget minister from 1993 to 1995.

When he snubbed President Jacques Chirac in 1995 by supporting Édouard Balladur for president, however, he lost the position. Although Chirac put his grudge aside in 2002, and appointed Sarkozy as French minister of the interior, Sarkozy's tenure in Chirac's administration was a bumpy one. The cabinet was reshuffled in 2004, and Sarkozy was appointed as finance minister. He held this position briefly; when Sarkozy became leader of the Union for a Popular Movement later that year, he resigned his post, in accordance with an agreement with Chirac. In 2005, Sarkozy was reappointed as interior minister, without resigning as head of the UMP. As interior minister, Sarkozy attracted attention during the 2005 Paris riots by referring to troublemaking youth as "scum" and "rabble," and stating that the rundown suburbs should be washed out "with a power hose." Foreign Policy One of Sarkozy's first orders of business was to strengthen France's relationship with the United States, which had been chilly since Jacques Chirac refused to send troops to Iraq in 2003.

Sarkozy promised—and delivered—troops to aid in the war, and France rejoined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's military structure in 2009. Almost immediately after entering office, Sarkozy began to negotiate with Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and the guerilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, in an attempt to secure the release of hostages, particularly Ingrid Betancourt, a dual French/Colombian citizen. France opposed a military effort and preferred diplomatic negotiations, but in 2008, Colombian forces, with American guidance, successfully rescued 15 hostages without informing France. In July of 2007, Sarkozy announced that France, along with other European countries, had obtained the release of the six Bulgarian nurses who had been held in Libya for more than eight years. In order to secure their extradition, he signed security, health-care and immigration pacts with Muammar Gaddafi. He also signed an arms trade agreement, sparking controversy and a criticism that he had bartered arms for hostages with a "rogue state." Sarkozy, as well as Bulgarian officials, deny that the two deals were related. Sarkozy's environmental policies were more popular.

During the 33rd G8 summit, he announced that France would attempt to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent by 2050, in an effort to reduce global warming. In 2010, France was ranked No. 1 on Yale University's Environmental Performance Index. Domestic Policy Historically, the president of the French Republic has focused on foreign relations; and the nation's prime minister has focused on domestic policy. Sarkozy, however, took a more active role in domestic issues. As part of his economic stimulus package, he reduced the inheritance tax and enacted the TEPA Law, which offered tax cuts to wealthy households. He also took a tough stance on immigration, and forced mass deportations of the Gypsy (Roma) population. Additionally, under Sarzoky's leadership, a new program was enacted to use fingerprints to profile passengers at airports, and to integrate that database into both the criminal justice and national security databases. In 2007, Sarkozy also broke with the Bastille Day tradition of offering amnesty for traffic tickets and releasing some prisoners from jail—a French custom that was started by Napoleon in 1802, to commemorate the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution.

In protest, public sector workers went on strike. University protests erupted at the same time, in protest of a polemical law that Sarkozy had established. Re-Election Campaign and Defeat Over the five years of his presidency, Sarkozy's approval ratings fell from the highest in the country's history to the lowest, at 26 percent, and he was considered a long-shot for re-election. He maintained that he would make a comeback and prevail, but in May of 2012, he was defeated in his bid for re-election by Socialist François Hollande. In his concession speech, Sarkozy said he assumed "full responsibility for this defeat," and suggested retiring from the political spotlight. Personal Life As with his political life, Sarkozy has courted controversy in his personal life. Sarkozy has been married to three women. He and his second wife, Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz, divorced in October of 2007, shortly after he took office, and he met his third wife, model and singer Carla Bruni, less than a month after he and Ciganer-Albéniz separated. He and Bruni were married three months later.

Sarkozy has four children; he has two children with his first wife, Marie-Dominique Culioli; one with Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz; and one with Carla Bruni. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information Nicolas and Carla Sarkozy at home - Telegraph France Nicolas and Carla Sarkozy at home A new film reveals the private side of France’s most public couple, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni Domestic bliss: the new documentary shows Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and Nicolas Sarkozy relaxing away from the public eye Photo: REX By Anne-Elisabeth Moutet Comments At the end of Campagne Intime, Farida Khelfa’s fly-on-the-wall documentary on Carla Bruni and Nicolas Sarkozy, filmed during his unsuccessful 2012 re-election campaign and aired last week on French television, the former president says he’s “turned a page – there’s no point in political comebacks; they screw you up”.

“Don’t be so definitive,” counters his wife, giving the lie to countless interviews over the previous four years in which she protested she didn’t like her life as France’s First Lady, and would have preferred for her husband not to run again. “No, I’m done. I’ll go back to being a lawyer; I’ll buy us a house,” he replies. In Paris dinner parties, the Sarkozys – love them or loathe them – are a welcome diversion from President François Hollande’s seemingly inexorable fall from grace. First among the many questions Miss Khelfa’s film prompted are: “Did he mean it? Does he mean it still?” The answers, generally, are “yes”, and “no”. Surprisingly graceful in the first shock of defeat, Sarkozy has since told enough friends of his contempt for the current incumbent. There now seems little doubt that, unless incapacitated by one of the many judicial inquiries started by what he sees as a vindictive Hollande administration, Sarko means to run again in 2017. Related Articles France unites against François Hollande 03 Nov 2013 In which case his first full-length political broadcast may well have been Miss Khelfa’s impressionistic, engaging film.

Khelfa is a model and actress-turned-filmmaker, and was once the muse of designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Azzedine Alaïa. As a lifelong friend of Carla Bruni, she chose to show the private side of a man whose downfall was famously ascribed to his abrasive character and vulgar tastes. “It’s not about politics; there were plenty of excellent reporters doing that,” she said. She films Sarkozy rehearsing a speech, but cuts the sound from the actual rally, preferring to follow the performance on the faces of the audience, of the candidate’s staff, of his security detail. Khelfa had unprecedented access thanks to Carla’s trust. We see the presidential couple in their lived-in, messy kitchen in Carla’s haute-bohème rented house, full of books, DVD box sets and art, in the leafy Sixteenth Arrondissement. We discover the former president as the fond father of two-year old Giulia; as a fan of his wife’s singing, clapping along as she strums her guitar and sings Bob Dylan numbers; as the hands-on stepfather of 12-year-old Aurélien.

Carla’s Left-wing friends drop by, including the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy’s actress-singer wife Arielle Dombasle and Gérard Depardieu (before his tax revolt). Sarkozy gets the dark circles under his eyes retouched by a make-up person; Carla grumbles about her post-pregnancy “jowls”. “Nonsense, you’re beautiful like that!” he says, before begging her to make him “un petit café”. Sarkozy, who is widely perceived as brutal, even thuggish, is here very tender. The portrait is infinitely seductive. In France, he is a divisive personality: his opponents tend to whip themselves into froth-at-the-mouth-hysteria at the mention of his name. Before the film was aired, a columnist on Le Nouvel Observateur vowed he would not even watch Campagne Intime, because it would be “pandering to Sarkozy’s crude power bid”. On Thursday, after Miss Khelfa’s documentary scored a respectable one and a half million viewers, a slew of scathing reviews appeared; critics found the portrayal simultaneously boring and threatening.

Jean-Pierre Michel, a Socialist senator, criticised the D8 Channel’s head of programming for airing “the worst political documentary of all time”. Sarkozy nostalgics, and there are quite a few, retort that this is fear speaking. The public, they argue, can now see the real man – and can compare him, and his elegant, well-mannered wife, with the current tenant of the Élysée Palace and his unloved partner. It would be disingenuous to think that the timing of the film’s release, or the final cut, were decided without any input from its subjects, who are both infinitely wise to the ways of image projection. After his defeat, Sarkozy disappeared from sight for several months, staying at his wife’s luxurious family house on Cap Nègre on the Riviera during the summer of 2012. Soon after he married Carla in 2008, this became his summer retreat.

As he has to step in when faced with a crisis great or small, neighbours of the Bruni-Tedeschi family on the promontory were soon treated to the unexpected presence of the country’s then president at local owners’ meetings, explaining how to argue with the zoning authorities to get mains drainage installed in lieu of each house relying on old septic tanks. (So far, he has failed to get it done.) Neglecting the nearby presidential holiday home at Fort de Brégançon – which Hollande and his partner, Valérie Trierweiler, dislike as well, so much that it is now being auctioned – the Sarkozys made a habit of spending a couple of weeks en famille at Cap Nègre every year. “En famille” has a special meaning for Sarkozy. His womanising, much-remarried father, Pál Sárközy de Nagy-Bocsa – an aristocratic Hungarian émigré who divorced Nicolas’s mother after only a couple of years – would see the young Nicolas and his brothers in restaurants before depositing them back home. He had little time for Nicolas, the difficult middle child, whose school marks were less impressive than his elder brother Guillaume’s.

(“You’ll never get anywhere,” was a familiar put-down, as was, “You’re short, you have a foreign name, you can’t possibly make it in politics”.) By contrast, Nicolas revels in the paterfamilias role. His idea of a good holiday involves the presence of all his sons, his stepson Aurélien, his mother, his mother-in-law, Marisa Bruni, and any number of friends of his or Carla’s. These can include former lovers such as the rock singer Louis Bertignac, the star barrister Arno Klarsfeld, even the father of his stepson. (When invited to the Elysée Christmas party after Sarkozy’s election, in 2007, a bemused Enthoven found himself bear-hugged by the new president. “You’re now part of the family,” Sarkozy said. “Don’t worry about Aurélien; I mean to take good care of him.”) But there’s only so much family leisure this class of political animal can take.

Even the loan of one of the King of Morocco Mohammed VI’s “spare palaces” in Marrakesh for a couple of weeks after his defeat failed to keep Sarkozy out of things for long. “I’ve had a five-month holiday; I’d never had one before,” he joked. In the autumn of 2012, he was at the Waldorf Astoria in New York for a financial conference, appearing to make good on his threat to join the international lecture circuit. But Sarkozy soon showed that for all his talk of “finally earning money for his family”, it was politics that came first for him still. He was approached by the government of Qatar to advise their sovereign fund – and declined. He renewed his registration with the Paris Bar, but hasn’t been seen in court at all. His offices on rue de Miromesnil, a short throw from the Élysée Palace and paid for by the French state, as for all previous presidents, are regularly visited by leaders of the conservative parties, who sullenly pay him some sort of obeisance. He is on the campaign trail again.

Carla Bruni, Wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is Pregnant at 43, Says Father-In-Law - ABC News Email French President Nicolas Sarkozy 's father may have spilled the beans when he told the German newspaper Bild that his daughter-in-law, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is pregnant . "The two do not want to know the gender in advance, but I'm sure it will be a girl and as beautiful as Carla," Pal Sarkozy told the newspaper. Oops. Oh well. It would have come out sooner or later. The French first lady had her first son, Aurelien, in 2001, and the French president has three children ranging from 13 to 25 from two previous marriages. Sarkozy's office staff did not confirm the pregnancy and said that it does not comment on the private and intimate aspects of the Sarkozys' life. Bruni-Sarkozy is 43. While it is fairly common to see women give birth well into their 40s, doctors say these soon-to-be moms do have a small but increased risk of certain complications of pregnancy. "Mostly, the risk of pregnancy over 40 is related to underlying disease," said Dr.

Alan Peaceman, chief of maternal fetal medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. "As we age, the probability of being diagnosed with a serious disease increases, so women in their 40s are more likely to have hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes, among others." But along with the underlying general health problems, women over 40 are also considered high-risk due to the increased risk of gestational diabetes, high blood sugar that begins during pregnancy; and preeclampsia, a condition in which high blood pressure and protein the urine develop during the second and third trimesters. "The risk of having a baby with a chromosomal abnormality such as Down syndrome increases, as well," said Peaceman. "Finally, rates of Cesarean delivery increase with maternal age." According to the March of Dimes, Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal birth defect. At age 40, a woman's risk of having a baby with Down syndrome increases to one in 100 and at age 45, one in 30. The American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecologists recommends that ob-gyns offer pregnant women of any age a screening test for chromosomal birth defects, including Down syndrome.

But Peaceman said that if a pregnant woman in her 40s is generally healthy and has not been diagnosed with a significant medical condition, the risks are only minimally elevated. The best way to prepare for pregnancy after 40 is the best way to prepare at any age: stop smoking, achieve a healthy body weight and be physically fit, Peaceman said. Dr. Jacques Moritz, director of gynecology at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York, said he is quite accustomed to seeing patients Bruni's age. Nearly one quarter of his patients are more than 40 years old. Despite the risk factors, Moritz said that Bruni-Sarkozy should be just fine. "Overall, the outcomes at 43 are excellent," said Moritz. "There is no cutoff for pregnancy.

Carla will do fine assuming there is only one." 0 Shares Carla Bruni-Sarkozy: Husband Nicolas Sarkozy Under Investigation Pinterest Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Carla Bruni-Sarkozy already has a pretty colorful resume: She’s been a supermodel who dated Mick Jagger , a well-reviewed singer-songwriter and an actress who scored a cameo in Woody Allen’s 2011 film, Midnight in Paris . And, of course, the Italian-born renaissance woman has been the first lady of France. It’s that last bit, her marriage to former president Nicolas Sarkozy, that now might land her the future title of Prison Wife. Bruni-Sarkozy’s husband, who led France from 2007 to 2012, scowled at cameras outside the couple’s Paris home on Wednesday, after he was held by police late Tuesday for 15 hours of questioning that the New York Times called “an unprecedented indignity for a former French president.” He was then put under formal investigation, on charges of influence-peddling and abuse of power that carry prison terms.

French authorities allege that Sarkozy and his lawyer illegally tried to influence judicial proceedings, including an investigation into Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign financing, when his campaign was accused of accepting some $68 million in illegal funds from Libya’s Moammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy, who has been planning a run for his UMP party’s leadership in September as prelude to a 2017 presidential bid, went on TF1 Wednesday night to decry the charges. “I’ve done nothing wrong,” he asserted. Bruni-Sarkozy was not with her husband as he later stepped out to dinner at Paris’s Guilio Rebellato, where he worked the alfresco dinner crowd with handshakes and chitchat. But her mother, Marisa Bruni-Tedeschi, sounded off to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, calling the investigation a conspiracy “to cut him off at the legs” as he’s preparing to run for office again. “Strange how this inquiry comes out now It is the moment that has been chosen which expresses a desire for vendetta,” she said.

“We who are closest to him are outraged.” Not to mention that an ill-timed trial or jail sentence could mean that Sarkozy might miss attending the wedding of his half brother, U.S.-based banker Olivier Sarkozy, who is engaged to actress-designer Mary-Kate Olsen. Show Full Article Nicolas Sarkozy latest - Telegraph Nicolas Sarkozy Read the latest on Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president of France, who is married to Carla Bruni Nicolas Sarkozy latest Nicolas Sarkozy mocks president as ‘ridiculous’ - NY Daily News Nicolas Sarkozy mocks Francois Hollande for love woes: ‘He is the ridiculous president’ Nicolas Sarkozy mocks president as ‘ridiculous’ A woman scorned: French President François Hollande has lived with journalist Valérie Trierweiler, right, since 2007. She lives in the presidential palace and is considered his 'première femme.' (Thibault Camus/AP) Thursday, January 16, 2014, 1:23 PM C'est ridicule! France's ex- President Nicolas Sarkozy is reportedly gloating over the love trouble his successor, François Hollande , is going through.

"He's got himself into a right old pickle," Sarkozy said about the situation, the UK Telegraph reported , citing the Le Canard Enchaîné, a satirical French newspaper . Last week, the French tabloid Closer published photos of Hollande reportedly being transported via motorcycle for a rendezvous with his mistress, actress Julie Gayet. Hollande's partner, Valérie Trierweiler, remains hospitalized as she recovers from shock after learning of the affair. "That photo of Hollande coming out of his mistress' place with a motorbike helmet makes Hollande look totally ridiculous," the paper quotes Sarkozy, reportedly during a conversation with friends. "He is the ridiculous president." Sarkozy, 58, endured love woes of his own early on in his tenure at Élysée Palace. His second-wife, Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz, reportedly cheated on her husband during his 2007 presidential campaign with executive Richard Attias. Many of their rencontres reportedly took place in New York. The other woman: French actress Julie Gayet, 41, is reportedly having an affair with Hollande.

(ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP/Getty Images) Sarkozy and Ciganer-Albéniz divorced in October 2007, shortly after his election in May. Sarkozy didn't stay single for very long and soon debuted his new arm candy, the glamorous model/singer/actress Carla Bruni in December 2007. He married his third wife in February 2008. But Sarkozy says he did the honorable thing by not skulking around with his lover and instead made his relationship with Bruni official. Meanwhile, Hollande is facing a tough choice between his longtime partner, journalist Valérie Trierweiler, 48, and his new film siren flame, Gayet, 41. Trierweiler has been living with Hollande, 59, since 2007 and she currently resides in the so-called "madame wing" of the presidential palace. Hollande has four children from a previous relationship with fellow socialist politician Ségolène Royal. Trierweiler, who is the country's de facto first femme, was hospitalized for "very strong emotional shock" after learning of Hollande's philandering.

France's former President Nicolas Sarkozy, with his third wife Carla, thinks the love triangle makes President Hollande look ridiculous. (Claude Paris/ASSOCIATED PRESS) Her spokesman suggested she could remain in the hospital until next Monday. Hollande admitted to the press he was experiencing "painful moments" in his personal life and he promised the nation he will soon chose a No. 1 woman in his life. Monsieur le Président said he will make the selection before his Feb. 11 trip to the U.S. The White House said it is looking forward to "seeing President Hollande for the state visit," but didn't comment on whether a First Lady was expected to join him. "On issues of the delegation that the French come with, I would refer you to the French government," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Tuesday. Gayet has remained silent but on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the gossip magazine for alleged invasion of privacy over its report. The lawsuit seeks 54,000 euros ($74,000) in damages and other fees, plus the publication of a summary of any judicial ruling in the case on its front page, a representative from Closer said.

Hollande said his “indignation is total” about the salacious story. Nicolas Sarkozy ally accused of spying in latest scandal to hit re-election bid | World news | The Guardian Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Sarkozy ally accused of spying in latest scandal to hit re-election bid Prosecutor close to French president in court over allegations of spying on Le Monde journalists investigating Bettencourt scandal Nicolas Sarkozy at the Élysée on Wednesday, the day his state prosecutor was to be interviewed by a judge over spying claims. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Sarkozy ally accused of spying in latest scandal to hit re-election bid Prosecutor close to French president in court over allegations of spying on Le Monde journalists investigating Bettencourt scandal Wednesday 28 September 2011 14.26 EDT First published on Wednesday 28 September 2011 14.26 EDT Close This article is 5 years old The threat to Nicolas Sarkozy's re-election bid from corruption scandals intensified on Wednesday after a leading state prosecutor close to the president was summoned before judges over an alleged dirty tricks campaign to spy on journalists.

Seven months before the presidential election, Sarkozy, who once promised to be Mr Squeaky Clean of French politics, has seen his close circle come under pressure in a series of corruption investigations whose plots thicken by the day. Investigators are untangling a web of scandals involving alleged illegal party-funding with banknotes variously stuffed into bags, briefcases and brown envelopes, as well as phone interceptions. As the beleaguered president unveiled his austerity budget on Wednesday, his government was waging a public relations war to try to dampen the talk of sleaze and to stress that Sarkozy himself had not been personally implicated. But with his closest allies being dragged into investigations, questions were being raised over Sarkozy's role. Coupled with the humiliating political defeat of the senate falling to the left for the first time in more than 50 years, voices in Sarkozy's own ruling party even began to question whether he was the best candidate to stand for the right in the 2012 presidential race. The latest scandal involves an alleged "cabinet noir", or office of shady operations, at the highest reaches of the state after Le Monde complained that the secret services had spied on its journalists to uncover their sources.

French state intelligence agencies are accused of illegally obtaining detailed phone records of every call and movement of Le Monde's investigations editor Gérard Davet in order to uncover his source on a story about the Bettencourt affair – the family saga which exploded into a series of tax-evasion and illegal party funding scandals that were extremely damaging to the French right. The source of one story was uncovered as an official in the justice ministry and was swiftly demoted by the government and posted to French Guiana. Le Monde claims two other journalists' phone records were illegally obtained. The episode was seen as an attempt by the highest echelons of the French state to lean on the media and its sources and scare them into silence. Opposition Socialists are demanding an independent commission examine whether the president's circle used state intelligence agencies to try to limit the damage to the ruling right UMP party from the growing Bettencourt scandal. Le Monde reported on Wednesday that the magistrate and French state prosecutor, Philippe Courroye, seen as close to Sarkozy, was to be interviewed by a Paris judge as part of the investigation into the spying scandal. The paper said a judge had written to Courroye to summon him for questioning and warn him he could be charged in the case.

If so, it would a first in French legal history. The case threatens to raise questions about the president's influence over state prosecutors. Courroye issued a statement dismissing all allegations and saying he was outraged by the "calumny" against him. He has denied being too close to Sarkozy. The president decorated him with an honour in 2009 and announced they were friends. Two other key figures of Sarkozy's circle, the head of the secret services, Bernard Squarcini, and chief of police, Frédéric Péchenard, are also to be summoned as witnesses by the judge investigating spying on journalists. The spying saga – described by one magazine editor as evidence of France's "banana republic" – is the latest in a bewildering array of corruption investigations to hit the right. The Bettencourt affair continues to damage Sarkozy's ruling UMP party. One inquiry is focused on whether Sarkozy or his party members took brown envelopes of cash from the billionaire L'Oréal shampoo heiress Liliane Bettencourt for illegal party funding.

Bettencourt's former accountant told Liberation on Wednesday that the elderly widow handed Sarkozy's party treasurer 50,000 euros in cash five months before the 2007 presidential election. In another affair known as "Karachigate", two of the president's closest friends, including his best man at his marriage to Carla Bruni, have been charged by judges investigating alleged kickbacks on arms sales to Pakistan in the 1990s. Judges are examining whether kickbacks illegally funded the presidential campaign of Sarkozy's mentor, former rightwing prime minister Édouard Balladur. The former interior minister Brice Hortefeux, Sarkozy's oldest friend, faces a legal complaint for leaning on witnesses after he was recording calling one of Sarkozy's allies who has been charged the Karachi case and warned him that his estranged wife had been "blabbing" too much to investigators. Hortefeux has counter-sued for defamation, denying the charges. The scandals facing Sarkozy The Bettencourt affair: An investigation into whether the billionaire L'Oréal heiress handed envelopes of cash to Sarkozy's treasurer, party members or even Sarkozy himself to illegally fund his previous presidential campaign.

Allegations that the Élysée leant on the judiciary to try to stifle the affair. Eric Woerth, Sarkozy's treasurer and former budget minister, denies involvement. Karachigate: Allegations that kickbacks from French arms sales to Pakistan in the early 1990s secretly funded the failed presidential campaign of Sarkozy's mentor Édouard Balladur. Sarkozy was his campaign spokesman. Sarkozy's office said he had nothing to do with the case. The Lagarde-Tapie affair: Former finance minister Christine Lagarde is under investigation for a 285m euro arbitration deal in favour of the controversial tycoon and Sarkozy ally Bernard Tapie. Did Sarkozy order the deal and did he personally benefit? The government spokeswoman said justice should be allowed to take its course and the presumption of innocence respected. Briefcases of African cash: An Africa expert close to Sarkozy claimed the former president Jacques Chirac and his prime minister Dominique de Villepin received briefcases of banknotes from African leaders to fund party politics. Others suggest this practise continued under Sarkozy. The interior minister said allegations against Sarkozy were "scandalous".

Question: What is the first name of the wife of French president Nikolas Sarkozy?
Answer: Carla