Nicolas Sarkozy ‘bored’ three weeks after leaving office
Mr Sarkozy intimated he would quit politics after his defeat
By Henry Samuel, ParisLast Updated: 9:12PM BST 03/06/2012
Nicolas Sarkozy is said to be “bored” after spending a three-week post-election break with his wife and children in Morocco in which he was constantly on the phone to politicians back in France, according to reports.
Mr Sarkozy, his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and their daughter Giulia, returned to Paris on Saturday, where he was spotted jogging in the Bois de Boulogne, after unwinding at King Mohammed VI’s expense in one of his luxury private residences in Marrakesh.
The Right-winger intends to remain “durably discreet” after losing to Socialist François Hollande in his presidential re-election bid on May 6, one of his closest friends, Brice Hortefeux, insisted.
“He is naturally concerned by the situation in Europe, but remains removed, voluntarily and durably from all political preoccupation,” he told France 3.
After spending the rest of the month in Paris, Mr Sarkozy will descend with his wife to her Riviera retreat in Cap Nègre for the following two months.
Playing hard to get would soon see the French missing Mr Sarkzoy, the country’s most unpopular President at the end of a first term, one friend predicted. “In a year, he’ll be as popular as (Jacques) Chirac ,” he is quoted as saying by Le Journal du Dimanche.
But others said the notoriously hyperactive former leader was clearly finding it hard to switch off, spending the final week of his break “on the phone to his former ministers, collaborators, and even MPs on the campaign trail,” according to JDD. Mr Sarkozy’s UMP party is widely expected to lose its majority in the National Assembly in parliamentary elections on June 10 and 17.
“As soon as I’m not there, it’s a mess,” he is reported as exclaiming. He is said to have even micromanaged from his hotel room a newspaper column by his supporters to launch a “friends of Nicolas Sarkozy association”.
One friend told the paper: “He’s not in any way depressed, just bored”.
Mr Sarkozy intimated he would quit politics after his defeat, saying he intended to become a “Frenchman among Frenchmen” and lead a “normal life”.
With a millionaire wife, a post-presidential monthly salary of 20,000 euros and half a dozen staff to man an office a stone’s throw from the Elysée, he has no material problems.
But press speculation is rife over his next move, with one friend telling JDD he might be angling for a “European” job. ” He already has an office at the Consitutional Council, where all former Presidents are life members.
Political analyst Pascal Perrineau said he expected Mr Sarkozy to be the first former French president to go down the “Anglo-Saxon” route of Tony Blair or Bill Clinton by “having a say about politics while doing business in the professional field (such as conference speaking)”.
But he said he it was “not very likely” he would seek to run for President in 2017 unless his camp collapsed due to in-fighting.
Despite his self-imposed silence, Mr Sarkozy may hit the headlines after June 15, when he loses his presidential immunity. He could be called in for questioning over several corruption cases, in particular the Bettencourt scandal over allegations of illegal political funding.
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