Nicolas Sarkozy will be 70: The deep fall of the “Président Bling-Bling”

When Nicolas Sarkozy celebrates his 70th birthday on January 28, the most interesting question should be: with or without? That means: with an ankle cap or without?

Nicolas Sarkozy was the President of the French Republic from 2007 to 2012, the highest office that the Grande Nation has to award. Accordingly, it is equipped with a lot of power and pomp. At Sarkozy it is not entirely clear what he appreciates more of it, best: both. That is why the French called him “Président Bling-Bling”.

After its deselection, in contrast to its predecessors, the dignity cannot keep up with power and pomp, and Sarkozy has been involved in several criminal proceedings since the end of his presidency, which, among other things, deals with suspicion of illegal campaign financing.

In December 2024, Sarkozy was legally convicted of a one -year imprisonment in the form of wearing an electronic ankle bracelet. The cassation court as the highest French court confirmed a judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal from 2023. Sarkozy had been sentenced to a total of three years in prison for corruption, two of them on probation. The conservative politician is therefore the first ex-president of France to be sentenced to a prison sentence without probation.

Hardly a story is as ready for film as this man. “La Conquête” (“The conquest”) was also the name of the feature film by the French dramatist and director Xavier Durringer (31), who was presented at the Cannes Festival in 2011. “The film puts the viewer like a little mouse in the middle of the secrets of conquering power,” said Durringer about his work.

Pál Sarkozy (1928-2023), the father of “Président Bling-Bling”, who founded the French dynasty of the Sarkozy and died in 2023 at the age of 94. He came from the Hungarian nobility family Sárközy de Nagy-Bócsa, which owned the lands and a castle in Alattyá, about 100 kilometers southeast of Budapest. Pal fled to Germany in front of the advancing Red Army in 1944 and went to the French Foreign Legion after the war, which he left in 1948.

Pál Sarkozy worked as a painter and was married four times. Andrée Mallah (1925-2017) became his third wife and the mother of Nicolas Sarkozy, who was born in Paris in 1955. After graduating from high school and studying law, he had a comet-like career in the Neu-Gaullist party, which ultimately led him to the Elysée Palace in 2007.

His second wife Cécilia (67), who was his consultant, had a large part in this success when he was still the interior minister and later took over the business department. She had already separated from him in 2005, but moved to the Elysée Palace with him in 2007 to finally leave him half a year later.

This separation was difficult for him to get the substance at first, but a short time later the public saw a radiant Sarkozy. He had conquered the beautiful Italian-French singer Carla Bruni (57) and married it on February 2, 2008. The couple triggered a global media hype. The daughter Giulia was born on October 19, 2011.

Carla Bruni, who had previously had affairs with men like Kevin Costner, Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, said about the new luck: “With Nicolas it was like a lightning strike. The fact that he was a French president didn’t matter. What fascinated me Has, his hands were how he moved, as he spoke. “

The election defeat against the socialist challenger François Hollande (70) In 2012 finally heralded the decline of a 1.65 meter -little man, who would have loved to go into French history as the greatest. Nicolas Sarkozy, who used to appear at two parties at the same time and was one of the most busy men from France, lived the first time after the loss of power in vacuum, in voluntary self -insulation. The people hardly wanted to know anything about him anymore, not the politics, but the law enforcement authorities.

At the beginning of January of this year, the process began for alleged payments from Libya. Sarkozy threatens up to ten years in prison because he is said to have received money from the former ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi (1942-2011) for his 2007 election campaign. The legal proceedings should last until April 10th.

Sarkozy did not wore a ankle bracelet at the start, since the punishment from December has not yet been enforced, such procedures often run over several months. Now the Sarkozy family hopes that the state is holding back with birthday gifts – and does not send an ankle fetter on the day of honor.