Presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy

The presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy began on 16 May 2007 when Nicolas Sarkozy became the sixth President of the French Fifth Republic, following his victory in the 2007 presidential election. A candidate of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), he nominated François Fillon as Prime minister, who formed a composite government, a bit modified following the UMP's relative victory during the June legislative election. Although the UMP had not obtained a majority as large as expected, Nicolas Sarkozy could launch the reforms he had pledged as a candidate as soon as he was elected. However, he tried to open his government to the opposition party, appointing several politicians close to the opposition parties.

With the quinquennat reform of 2000, the president of the republic has a five-year term to lead freely the domestic policy he wants, if ever he obtains the majority at the legislative election, which is very likely to occur. Traditionally, according to the Constitution of the French Fifth Republic, the main role of the President of the Republic is to determine the foreign policy of the nation, while the Prime Minister is entrusted with leading the domestic policy. However, as François Fillon was politically very close to the President, Nicolas Sarkozy could be very active both in foreign relations and in domestic reforms. French journalists have called him a " hyper-président", to insist on his will to solve many important problems and his omnipresence in all domains. Some media even compared him with Napoléon Bonaparte and Louis XIV to refer to his will to control and change everything. While the popularity of the president was very high at the beginning of his mandate, it rapidly declined during the first months of his mandate, and the government faced several protests.

The presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy was marked by the global financial and economic crisis. As President-in-Office of the European Council during the last six months of 2008, and as the president of a member country of the G-8 and the G-20, Nicolas Sarkozy was very much involved in the international debates and propositions to fight against the crisis. He had also to cope with the economic and social effects of the crisis in France. In particular, he had to renounce to reduce the public deficit as he had promised, and instead he had to launch a stimulus package, as part of the 2008 European Union stimulus plan, to limit social discontentment. As he had promised to reach full-employment and to boost the economic growth, he faced growing protest. In the 2012 presidential elections, Sarkozy was defeated by Socialist François Hollande by a margin of 3.2%.

Transfer of power

Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president on 6 May 2007, but the official transmission of power took place ten days after. In this period of time, he could not exercise his power nor begin appointing a government. Between 7 and 9 May, he left on holidays with his family off Malta on board a yacht lent by a friend of M.Sarkozy's, Vincent Bolloré. This trip gave rise to some criticism in the media, because Vincent Bolloré was the chairman of the Bolloré Group, one of the biggest and most powerful French conglomerates. However, a poll showed that a majority of people found that this trip was not shocking.

The official transfer of power from Jacques Chirac took place on 16 May at 11:00 am (9:00 UTC) at the Élysée Palace, where Nicolas Sarkozy was given the nuclear codes of the French nuclear arsenal and presented with the Grand Master's Collar, symbol of his new function of Grand Master of the Legion of Honour. At that point, he formally became president. '' Leyenda'', by Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz was played in honour of the president's wife. Both Sarkozy's mother Andrée, and his formerly estranged father Pal – with whom Sarkozy had reached a reconciliation – attended the ceremony, as did Sarkozy's children.
The presidential motorcade then travelled from the Élysée to the Champs-Élysées for a public ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe. Then the new president went to the Cascade du Bois de Boulogne of Paris for a homage to the French Resistance and to the Communist resistant Guy Moquet – he proposed that all high-school students read Guy Moquet's last letter to his parents, which was criticized by a number of leftists as a cynical form of reappropriation of French history by the right.

In the afternoon, the new president flew to Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Appointment of the government

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was replaced by François Fillon on 17 May. Sarkozy appointed Bernard Kouchner, the left-wing founder of Médecins Sans Frontières, as his foreign minister, leading to Kouchner's expulsion from the Socialist Party. In addition to Kouchner, three more Sarkozy ministers are from the left, including Eric Besson, who served as Ségolène Royal's economic adviser at the beginning of her campaign. Sarkozy also appointed seven women to form a total cabinet of 15; one, Justice Minister Rachida Dati, is the first woman of Northern African origin to serve in a French cabinet. Of the 15, only two attended the elite École nationale d'administration (ENA) . The ministers were reorganized, with the controversial creation of a Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-Development – given to his right-hand man Brice Hortefeux – and of a Ministry of Budget, Public Accounts and Civil Administration – handed out to Éric Wœrth, supposed to prepare the replacement of only a third of all civil servants who retire.

The UMP, Sarkozy's party, won a majority at the June 2007 legislative election, although by less than expected. The presidential party only gained 318 seats out of 577.

First reforms

In July, the UMP majority, seconded by the ''Nouveau Centre'', approved one of Sarkozy's electoral promise, which was to quasi-suppress the inheritance tax. The inheritance tax used to bring eight billion euros into state coffers. This reform was included in a fiscal stimulus package that allegedly aimed at reviving the economic growth. However, the TEPA Law, another measure of the stimulus package, sparked a polemic because it seemed to favour richest households through tax cuts.

Furthermore, Sarkozy cut with the custom of amnestying traffic tickets and of releasing some prisoners from overcrowded jails on Bastille Day, a tradition that Napoleon had started in 1802 to commemorate the storming of the Bastille during the French RevolutionMolly Moore
France's Sarkozy Off to a Running Start
''Washington Post'', 4 August 2007

Fillon's government issued a decree on 7 August 2007 to generalize a voluntary biometric profiling program of travellers in airports. The program, called '' Parafes'', was to use fingerprints. The new database would be interconnected with the Schengen Information System (SIS) as well as with a national database of wanted persons ( Fichier des personnes recherchées, FPR). The CNIL protested against this new decree, opposing itself to the recording of fingerprints and to the interconnection between the SIS and the FPR.Généralisation du fichage biométrique volontaire des voyageurs dans les aéroports français
, ''Le Monde'', 8 August 2007

In November 2007, Sarkozy faced his first domestic test when workers from the public sector struck to protest his domestic reform policies. At the same time, there were also the university protests in response to a polemical law supported by the UMP, MoDem and Nouveau Centre that reforms the university system in France. The first debates on the reform of French health care system were also tough.

First international actions

Shortly after taking office, President Sarkozy began negotiations with Colombian president Álvaro Uribe and the left-wing guerrilla FARC, regarding the release of hostages held by the rebel group, especially Franco-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. According to some sources, Sarkozy himself asked for Uribe to release FARC's "chancellor" Rodrigo Granda.

Release of Bulgarian nurses

During his investiture speech as President beginning of May 2007, Sarkozy had alluded to the Bulgarian nurses detained in Libya, declaring: "France will be to the sides of the Libyan nurses detained for 8 years..." French language: "''La France sera aux côtés des infirmières libyennes enfermées depuis huit ans…''"
Vidéo : Premier discours du président Sarkozy
RFI, 6 May 2007

He announced on 24 July 2007, that French and European representatives had obtained the extradition of the Bulgarian nurses detained in Libya to their country. In exchange, he signed with Gaddafi security, health care and immigration pacts – and a $230 million (168 million euros) MILAN antitank missile sale.Les coulisses de la libération des infirmières bulgares
''Le Monde'', 3 August 2007 The contract was the first made by Libya since 2004, and was negotiated with MBDA, a subsidiary of EADS. Another 128 million euro contract would have been signed, according to Tripoli, with EADS for a TETRA radio system. The Socialist Party (PS) and the Communist Party (PCF) criticized a "state affair" and a "barter" with a "Rogue state". The leader of the PS, François Hollande, requested the opening of a parliamentary investigation.

Additionally, President Sarkozy pledged to sell Libya three civil nuclear power stations as part of a package of trade and assistance that will boost the role of French companies in the oil-rich country. During his visit to Libya on 25 July 2007, Sarkozy signed an agreement of cooperation on civil nuclear technology. He decided to build three civil nuclear power stations to the Libyan state.Christopher Dickey
The Politics of Blackmail – Libya's 'Immoral' Games with the West
''Newsweek'', 1 August 2007Christophe Châtelot
Le chef du renseignement bulgare évoque un écheveau de contacts secrets
''Le Monde'', 1 August 2007 According to Paris, the nuclear power stations are meant for desalinization of sea water,Germans attack Libya nuclear deal
BBC
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