How Sarko seduced France

I’m rather looking forward to reading Yasmina Reza’s account of her year on the campaign trail with Nicolas Sarkozy, Dawn, Evening or Night. It looks as though it could be the political book of the year. If Elaine Sciolino’s article is at all accurate, Sarko comes across as a man who, above all, is alive (a welcome change after the stagnant corruption of the Chirac years. There’s wit too:

Even before his victory, Sarkozy is drunk with bravado. Emerging from lunch in London with then-Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, Sarkozy announces to his aides: “Tony and I have just made a decision. We’re going to conquer Europe.” In a scene on the eve of the election, he brags about the official lodgings that will come with the job: “I’m going to get a palace in Paris, a chateau at Rambouillet and a fort at Brégançon. C’est la vie.” Quick to anger, he calls both his aides and political enemies unprintable vulgarities.