French politician and convicted felon who served as President of France and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012. He is of one half Hungarian Protestant, one quarter Greek Jewish, and one quarter French Catholic origin.
His Hungarian father emigrated to France during the Russian invasion of his homeland in 1944. At age 26 Sarkozy earned his law degree. He served as mayor of Neuilly, an affluent Paris suburb, from 1983 to 2002. Since being elected deputy in 1988, he held various positions in government. On 7 May 2002 he became Interior Minister. Under Jacques Chirac he was named Minister of State, economy and finances, on 1 April 2004. In November 2004 he was elected to the head of his party (UMP). From 1993-1995 he was the Budget minister; concurrently from 1994-1995 he was the Minster of Communication and on 14 January 2007 he was declared a presidential candidate.
Sarkozy has been married three times. With his first wife whom he married in 1982, he had two sons, Pierre (born 1985) and Jean (born 1987). With his second wife, Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, a former model and public relations executive, he had one son, Louis, born 23 April 1997, after their marriage in October 1996. She made news in the USA when she claimed that a sore throat prevented her from dining with the Bushes on a trip to Kennebunkport. She was later in the day seen shopping and looking quite well. Reports of their marital problems followed and their divorce was announced on 18 October 2007. A few months later he was seen with model Carla Bruni and they married on 2 February 2008.
Sarkozy has a certain flair that can be charming but he is also known for having a volatile temper. His biographer, Anita Hausser, labelled him “hyperactive, ambitious, a hard worker who never rests.” He wielded political power effectively and to his advantage. He had little tolerance for inquiries into his private life, even storming out of a videotaped interview with Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes when she began asking about his wife Cecilia after their marital problems had surfaced in the news. Politically he was quite a powerful presence and he spoke his mind no matter who became alienated. He even voted against his mentor, Jacques Chirac in 1995 thus causing tension between the formerly close men.
The hard-driving politician collapsed while running on 25 July 2009 in Paris. He was hospitalized overnight but doctors found no serious medical problems other than exhaustion and heat fatigue.
On 6 May 2012, Sarkozy was defeated in the 2012 election by Socialist François Hollande by a margin of 3.2 percent. In consequence, his term as president ended on 15 May 2012.
He and his wife, Carla Bruni, welcomed their first child together, a daughter, born on 19 October 2011 between 7:30 and 8 PM in Paris according to various news reports.
After leaving the presidential office, Sarkozy vowed to retire from public life before coming back in 2014, being subsequently reelected as UMP leader (renamed The Republicans in 2015). Being defeated at the Republican presidential primary in 2016, he retired from public life. He was charged with corruption by French prosecutors in two cases, notably concerning the alleged Libyan interference in the 2007 French elections. In 2021, Sarkozy and two co-defendants were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison; he has appealed the ruling.
Link to Wikipedia biography