Once the most powerful man in France, Nicolas Sarkozy has now lifted the lid on his astonishing fall from grace in a memoir recounting his brief spell behind bars.
The 70-year-old became the first French head of state to be jailed since the end of the Second World War, spending three weeks locked inside the walls of Paris’s La Sante prison.
Now, in a dramatic new interview and tell-all memoir, he has described the grim reality of life in jail – from the ‘absence of colour’ to his bleak diet.
Speaking to French newspaper Le Figaro in his first interview since walking free, the former conservative leader detailed the personal torment he endured after being handed a five-year prison sentence in October over alleged illegal Libyan funding of his 2007 presidential campaign – accusations he fiercely denies.
At the same time, Sarkozy penned a prison diary, titled Le journal d’un prisonnier (The Diary of a Prisoner), which will be released this week by publisher Fayard and has already surged up bestseller charts on pre-orders alone.
The announcement of the book sparked polarised reactions across France, with loyal supporters praising his candour while critics mocked the project.
Inside its pages, Sarkozy paints a grim portrait of confinement, writing: ‘I was struck by the absence of any colour. Grey dominated everything, devoured everything, covered all surfaces’.
He explained he wrote the book by hand at a small plywood table in a 12-square-metre cell, adding: ‘In prison, there is nothing to see and nothing to do,’ before continuing: ‘The noise is unfortunately constant. But, as in the desert, the interior life is strengthened in prison.’
Despite his status, Sarkozy insists he received no special treatment.
He was held in an isolation wing for his own protection, with his cell door kept shut for long periods.
Armed officers guarded him around the clock, and even slept in a cell next door.
Meals, he said, were modest and repetitive – made up of mostly ‘dairy products, cereal bars, mineral water, apple juice, and a few sweet treats’
Still proclaiming his innocence, Sarkozy denies any part in a plot top secure campaign cash from Libya’s former dictator Colonel Gaddafi.
Explaining why he decided to write his dramatic account, he told Le Figaro: ‘I had to answer this simple question, “But how did I get here?” I had to reflect on this strange life of mine, which has led me through so many extreme situations’.
His interviewer noted how prison appeared to have physically changed him – deeper wrinkles, a thinner frame, and a more thoughtful air.
Sarkozy did not disagree, telling her bluntly: ‘Prison is very hard’.
He revealed that after finishing the manuscript just days after his release, he showed it to his wife, singer-songwriter and former model Carla Bruni.
He said she ‘loved it’ before the work was passed to his lawyers, who removed certain passages.
While incarcerated, his reading included a biography of Jesus and Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo, the classic tale of a man falsely imprisoned.
Sarkozy described the dizzying contrast of his final days of freedom, recalling a formal welcome by President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace just two days before imprisonment.
‘Could one imagine a more striking contrast?,’ he reflected.
Behind bars, he said his faith returned. On his first day he knelt to pray: ‘It came naturally. I stayed like that for several minutes,’ he wrote, adding: ‘I prayed for the strength to bear the cross of this injustice.’
On his first Sunday, he received a visit from the prison chaplain – arranged by his second son Jean – and admitted he was not expecting much.
‘I would be lying if I said I was bursting with impatience to meet him, but an appointment during the day was better than nothing,’ he said. ‘Besides, I felt a certain curiosity.’
To his surprise, Sarkozy bonded with the casually dressed priest and discussions ranged from religion and the Pope to rural churches and how goodness ‘exists even in the darkest personalities’.
Reflecting on the encounter, he wrote: ‘Was it the sign I’d been waiting for? I don’t know, but it allowed me to spend that Sunday of anticipated solitude with great peace of mind’.
He added defiantly: ‘Some may scoff at this kind of sudden conversion. They will undoubtedly interpret it as a sign of weakness, at best a passing one. I don’t care, since these are the feelings I deeply experienced.’
The book’s publication this Wednesday will launch an intense publicity drive, beginning with a signing at a bookshop near his luxury home in Paris’s wealthy 16th arrondissement – just minutes from the prison itself – followed by a tour stop in Menton on the French Riviera.
He is set to appear alongside his son Louis, who is standing for mayor in next year’s local elections.
Sarkozy’s dramatic early release on November 10 came after a court hearing where his lawyers argued that defendants awaiting appeal are typically not kept behind bars unless deemed dangerous or at risk of absconding or interfering with evidence.
During the hearing, Sarkozy described his jail term in video testimony as a ‘nightmare’ and again insisted he was innocent.
The last time France jailed a former head of state was Philippe Petain, the wartime Vichy leader, who was sentenced to death in 1945 before his punishment was commuted to life imprisonment.
The case remains deeply diverse. Many right-wing voters believe Sarkozy was hounded by politically motivated prosecutors, while his critics – and around 60 per cent of the general public – supported the sentence.
His legal battles are far from over, however. If his appeal fails in March, he could be sent back behind bars for far longer than three weeks.
Adding to his troubles, France’s highest court recently upheld a separate conviction for breaking campaign spending limits during his failed 2012 re-election bid, for which he received six months of house arrest after spending €42.8 million – almost double the legal cap.
He also faces the possibility of another trial linked to alleged pressure placed on witness Ziad Takieddine, who claimed he delivered suitcases of cash from Libya to the French ministry before later withdrawing the claim.
Carla Bruni has been placed under judicial supervision in connection with the witness’s retraction.
Both she and Sarkozy deny any wrongdoing.
