“... Mélenchon, the left populist leader of La France Insoumise, as well as the former president Nicolas Sarkozy and Marine Le Pen. Louis Aliot, Le Pen’s second-in-command, controversially argued that Jaurès would now vote RN. To call him a ‘great republican’ doesn’t mean much nowadays and downplays his radicalism. Nonetheless, like de ...”

“... of the Elf Gabon affair, ‘was done to French democracy.’ Nine days after becoming president, Nicolas Sarkozy met Bongo at the Elysée Palace; it was the first meeting the new head of state held with a foreign leader. Sarkozy’s minister of justice, Rachida Dati, a popular figure with the press because she is a ...”

“... deeply into trouble, the taxpayers will be there to bail them out. After a meeting with Nicolas Sarkozy in the autumn, Angela Merkel stated her conviction that ‘no bank should be allowed to become so big that it can blackmail governments.’ She’s right – but unfortunately, that’s the system we have, and will continue to have for the ...”

“... of co-operation’); and in organisations such as the Union for the Mediterranean, conceived by Nicolas Sarkozy to bring together those countries whose shores meet the Mediterranean, whether European, North African or Levantine, and including both Israel and the Occupied Territories. That geographic definition was immediately challenged by the European ...”

“... exact formula which didn’t just cause the credit crunch, it was the credit crunch. On 16 August, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel had an emergency meeting to decide what to do about the Eurozone crisis. After it, they gave a press conference at which they spoke in platitudes about the need for Europe to improve its ‘economic governance’, avoiding ...”

“... against the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq now looks like the last gasp of a dying creed. In 2009 Nicolas Sarkozy rescinded the Gaullian withdrawal of France from Nato command. Under the presidencies of François Hollande and Macron, France has abandoned singularity in foreign policy, let alone the pretence of greatness.The decay of Gaullism wouldn’t ...”

“... lawyers defending him were subjected to similar treatment. In January, he wrote an open letter to Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown, Condoleezza Rice and the president of the European Parliament. The letter, which remains unanswered, explained the real reasons for Musharraf’s actions: At the outset you may be wondering why I have used the words ...”

“... incoming French head of state has nosedived in the polls as steeply as Hollande, who in defeating Nicolas Sarkozy eight months ago stressed he’d be a ‘normal’ president – an effective barb against his opponent. As it turned out, normalcy soon came to mean mediocrity. From the bungled introduction of a high-income tax bracket – 75 per cent on ...”

“... of the banlieues had as its immediate cause the statements made by the then interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy. Having made the fight against delinquency the main plank of his electoral programme, he had referred to young people in the banlieues as ‘riff-raff’ whom he intended to ‘power-hose’ off the streets. The fact that a minister could ...”

“... gives the Front National a narrow victory in round one of next year’s presidential elections if Nicolas Sarkozy is the centre-right candidate, and second place if it’s Alain Juppé (either way, Hollande does not go to round two). Extreme French nationalism has a firm foothold, but how do its exponents think, and where do they go in search of ...”

“... required incomers to endorse ‘French’ values. The following year the minister of the interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, began hounding down schoolchildren whose papers were not in order.Unease was not just to do with fresh migrant intakes: politicians and the popular press were deeply concerned about the people already inside their countries, and host ...”

“... on the hoary notion of a West shaped by Christianity – that even such guardians of laïcité as Nicolas Sarkozy have expediently embraced. Inconvenient facts such as the growth of Christian fundamentalism in America can be explained away as a ‘reaction to the threat of radical Islam’. Convinced that ‘moral beliefs’ have given a clear overall ...”

“... incentives to employers that protected older workers have also been withdrawn. The glamorous Nicolas Sarkozy, the immensely powerful new minister of the interior, president of the UMP and candidate for the presidency, is now touring the problem suburbs, with a large media and police escort in tow, employing language indistinguishable – right down ...”

“... corporations and Western leaders; Tony Blair fêted him in Downing Street in 2006 and Nicolas Sarkozy visited him with a group of French tycoons in September. Their advisers argue that Nazarbayev is more ‘modern and responsible’ than any other Central Asian leader, and it’s true that he isn’t on a par with such neighbours as Islam ...”

“... what the other loses, to zero public benefit. It seems a good idea to me and to other fans such as Nicolas Sarkozy, and its main flaw is that it isn’t going to happen, because the Obama administration promptly and definitively nixed it. That was back in the days before the penny dropped with Obama that the banks were so unpopular he could no longer take ...”