Nicolas Sarkozy is the Comeback Kid. Despite a crippling defeat in the 2012 French Presidential election against then-Socialist candidate and current French President Francois Hollande, Sarkozy is rising again like a phoenix from the ashes. Over the weekend, Sarkozy was elected the leader of the opposition Union for Popular Movement party with 64.5 percent of the vote, well ahead of his nearest rival, Bruno Le Maire, who received less than 29.2 percent of the vote. This is the first step toward a new house for Sarkozy with a job to go with it in 2017: the Elysée Palace and the presidency of France.
But it will be an uphill battle all the way. There are a great deal of people who believe Sarkozy should stay a private citizen and his victory in the UMP party election was less than convincing compared to his performance in 2004. These naysayers definitely have some reason to believe that their opinions are correct. At the moment, Sarkozy is being investigated on a corruption charge — bribing a Supreme Court judge — that threatens to send him to jail rather than to the Elysée Palace. On top of that, the founder of the UMP party, Alan Juppe, is also running for president in France, and he is resoundingly beating Sarkozy in polls.
Despite all of this, the real issue for Sarkozy since his loss in 2012 is the economy of France. In fact, this is primarily the issue which cost Sarkozy the election to Hollande. However, it may be the Sarkozy's strength now. The economy of France, despite the promises of Hollande to the contrary during the 2012 election, is still in a dire state of crisis.
In fact, Hollande is still promising the French public that he has and is continuing to do everything he can to end the economic hardship and skyrocketing unemployment that has gripped France since the global economic crisis of 2008. Yet even now, Europe, and in particular France, still has that sinking feeling — sinking like the job rate in France has been consistently doing, even as recently as last month; sinking like Hollande’s private life is, as the scandal of his love affairs is exposed by his former girlfriend in conjunction with the French press; sinking like Hollande’s approval rating is doing due to all of these factors.
So as Sarkozy faces an uphill battle for election as President of France in 2017, it would be good for France if someone gave him shoes with good traction. Laying aside the corruption scandal and the “Mr. Bling Bling” private life that Sarkozy leads, Sarkozy had a good presidential record overall. During his tenure, he took forceful action on the economy, using his close relationships with his contemporaries in other European countries to be proactive on the issue of the Eurozone. The fact that he was not able to pull France out of the crisis is more a testament to the fury of the crisis itself than a lack of leadership skills on the part of Sarkozy.
Sarkozy also had a relatively well-balanced foreign policy record while in office, from his role in the freeing of the French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt to his intervention in the 2008 Russian-Georgian war. His joint leadership with David Cameron of the campaign against Libya was impressive as well. In fact, the only unstable leadership aspect that Sarkozy and Hollande can be said to have in common is lack of internal government management skills.
Yes, there are other good candidates for the French presidential election of 2017. Yes, Nicolas Sarkozy is a wild card, especially with the scandal attached to his name. Indeed, if the charge of bribery of a public official turns out to be founded, I would be the first to call for accountability on the part of Sarkozy and for him to suffer the consequences of his actions.
But keeping all of this in mind, at the end of the day I believe that Sarkozy would be good for France because he has a good presidential record, he feels that it is his duty to serve, and he has an incentive to prove himself. Besides, everyone deserves a second chance to do the right thing.
Reach the columnist at jbrunne2@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @MrAmbassador4
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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