== Breaking the lines: Sarkozy's presidential campaign==

Nicolas Sarkozy's election as the President of France on May 6, 2007, marked a turning point in French political life. It represents not just the rise of a new generation but also a clear rehabilitation of the political debate in France, as demonstrated by the exceptionally high voter registration and turnout.

Rama Yade, now Minister of State responsible for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, played an active role in preparing and running Mr. Sarkozy's campaign, whose overarching theme was breaking with the past. Her account of that campaign offers a unique insider perspective on the reasons for the candidate's massive success (53% of the vote) and the renewal of French democracy.

On Sunday, May 6, 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy was elected the 23rd President of the French Republic with 53.6% of the vote.

This represented a break with traditional French politics.

• This was the first time since 1981 that a member of the outgoing government was elected. He had broken with the entire political class of the previous 25 years, not just the Left. He was able to transcend the legacy of his own political path, begun in 1974.

• The two rounds of the election saw some of the highest turnouts of the Fifth Republic, founded in 1958. Not only did 3.3 million new voters rush to register, an 8% increase over 2002; at some polling places, so many young people from the suburbs turned out that lines stretched nearly 100 feet. Moreover, turnout in both the first and second rounds was nearly 84%. This massive revival of interest in politics owed a great deal to Nicolas Sarkozy’s “break with the past” in his way of practicing politics.

• Although a conservative candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy was elected on a platform and project combining values and progress. His notable willingness to “seek out talent and ideas wherever they are,” regardless of political affiliations, marked a profound break with traditional political divides.

Sunday, May 6, 2007, the victory of a free man.

Q: How could someone who was a conservative party member for more than 20 years manage to win election on the theme of a “break with the past,” separating himself from the record of a government that constituted his own political family?

A: By being a free man whose acts and thoughts are turned toward the future.

A free man

“I know we must restore strength, content, nobility and usefulness to political action”

In 2004, when he had just won the presidency of the conservative UMP party, Nicolas Sarkozy stated, “I know we must restore strength, content, nobility and usefulness to political action.”

• He had a long political and ministerial career. He served as a government minister for nearly nine of the past 15 years and held party leadership responsibilities for approximately six.

• This long experience enabled him to establish and lay the theoretical groundwork for a severe diagnosis of French politics. He was convinced it was necessary to break with the old ways of conducting politics, and that the French were waiting for such a break.

• An adept of clear language and “speaking the truth,” he established a close relationship with the people during his speeches, which received increasing media attention.

• He devoted himself fully to his responsibilities without denying his convictions. In his work, he exhibited solidarity with the governments to which he belonged; in his political discourse, he was a free man.

Future-oriented action “I want you, starting tomorrow, to go off and meet the French. Get involved in politics. Love politics. Get people to share your passion for France. Approach others without arrogance but with the spirit of tolerance of those who know that their ideas are just.”

For Nicolas Sarkozy, breaking with the old way of conducting politics isn’t just the words of a politician. These words, these declarations are nothing if the men and women who share them don’t rise up to defend them.

• Between 2004 and 2007, he created a powerful dynamic within the conservative party he headed, leading it to produce and promote innovative ideas.

• He established close ties with all party officials. He met with them regularly. He listened to their experiences. He took them into account, proposed solutions.

• He established (and achieved) the ambitious goal of raising party membership to 300,000, making the conservative party the leading party in France in terms of membership. Each month he met with new members and rallied them.

• He used every means of communication to publicize his actions and his positions. He innovated: He was the first to use e-mail to bring the French into the political debate (which was quite controversial), and was the first to use online political advertising.

• He called on the French on every front. Activists crisscrossed French beaches during the summer; open houses were held repeatedly at the party’s local offices; and meetings were organized nationwide.

• Very early on, he undertook an in-depth effort to develop a credible project that would be as broad as possible. He developed all the major impetuses of this project, which generated the strongest ideas of the presidential campaign.

A forward-looking philosophy “I know that the French are waiting for a project that mobilizes them and restores their faith both collectively and individually. A grand design for the France of the 21st century and for all the French.”

The project constituted the main “break with the past.” Mr. Sarkozy wanted to end the “fatalism” and “status quo” policies he was criticizing. He saw them as the main causes for the French disaffection with politics.

The project he was envisioning could only be done by getting to the bottom of every subject, without taboos. He would devote two years to it.

• He engaged the party in a systematic examination of the major issues of France and French society. Over a 24-month period, he held 18 conventions lasting one day each, covering such subjects as the society of knowledge, culture, the environment, the economy, education, Europe, women, immigration, injustices, institutions, justice, housing, overseas departments and territories, rural development, health, public services, social issues and sports.

• These conventions benefited from the contributions of 750 experts from a wide variety of social and political backgrounds, 130 elected officials and parliamentarians brought in for their ability to translate the sentiments of the men and women they represented; and debates among activists organized in the 104 local UMP federations. They were open to the public, attracting 22,000 people and followed online by more than 400,000.

• True to his philosophy of “seeking out talent and ideas wherever they are,” Nicolas Sarkozy supplemented this work with an exhaustive analysis of foreign experiences. Seven study trips were made: to the United States (immigration – education policy in impoverished areas); to Canada (immigration – integration); to Great Britain (education – social policy – cultural policy – immigration); to Sweden (sports – environmental policy); to Finland (education -> teacher training); to the Netherlands (flextime and job security); and to China (globalization).

In two years, six months before campaigning began, Mr. Sarkozy had won his bet: the French appreciated his plain speaking; they became reinvested in politics, fascinated and impassioned by debate. These were the main reasons for the massive voter registration and the extraordinary voter turnout.

But Mr. Sarkozy also worked his own field: the UMP was given marching orders, growing from 114,000 to 300,000 members and becoming the largest party of France. Most important, its platform was full of solutions to the problems of French society.

At the dawn of the campaign, Nicolas Sarkozy made a break with the past. He had a “grand design” for France. The man was known; his ideas were new.

Sunday, May 6, 2007, the victory of a credible political package.

Q: Did Nicolas Sarkozy win on results, a project, values, his personality or the weakness of his opponents?

A: It was the triumph of a political package (personality + values + project) bolstered by the errors of his opponents.

The idea of breaking with the past was based on the observation that in France, the political problem was one of supply, not of demand.

A courageous man of action

“The status quo will not be the byword of a popular movement, it will be its adversary. Courage means making choices and standing by them!”

What Nicolas Sarkozy brought to the table derived first of all from his own personality.

• Consistent with the ideas he championed, he preferred candor to seeking popularity, the freedom of making new proposals to doctrinaire thinking. He purposefully maintained a dynamic of permanent risk.

• The creation of a Ministry of Immigration, National Identity and Co-Development was the perfect example of this embrace of constant risk. Originally decried even among his own supporters, the proposal enunciated during the campaign not only sparked a wide- ranging debate on national identity, further strengthening Mr. Sarkozy’s defense of the concept of the nation, but has become a reality crucial to the reinvention of France’s management of migratory flows.

• But while he fiercely defended his convictions, Mr. Sarkozy professed deep respect for those who disagreed with him. The contrast between his serenity during the big debate of the second round and the aggressiveness of his opponent offered striking proof of this.

In the eyes of a majority of French people, these three aspects of his personality clearly represented characteristics they looked for in a political leader in whom they would entrust the responsibility of leading the country toward the future.

Mr. Sarkozy perceived this expectation. He responded to it, systematically affirming that he intended to say during the campaign what he would do if he were elected, and to do what he had said if he were indeed elected. He made a commitment.

Backward-looking opponents

“Nicolas Sarkozy represents a risk for France. The victory of the hard-line, right-wing candidate will arouse very strong tensions in the country. This candidate is dangerous. That’s why I am asking the voters to think carefully. It’s my responsibility to sound an alarm […] about the violence and brutality that will be unleashed in the country.” (Ségolène Royal on RTL, May 4, 2007)

The weakness of the Socialist Party’s project would have been enough to lose it an election it nevertheless considered impossible to lose. Much more likely, it was the discrepancy between the expectations of the French people and what the Socialist party had to offer that caused its failure.

Faced with Mr. Sarkozy’s package of new ideas and methods, Ms. Royal offered traditional methods and few ideas. One candidate understood the expectations of the French, the other didn’t. The campaign clearly highlighted this. The big debate between the two rounds was the culmination of this manifestation of difference.

Ideas at the heart of the political package

Q: A new man or new ideas? Did the conservative candidate come across as a man of progress?

A: Nicolas Sarkozy came across as a man of progress because he was able, first, to reconcile the profound duality of the French nation, at once conservative and progressive. It is this openness he is putting into practice today.

Restoring values

“I want to bring values back to the heart of French political life. They will guide my actions for the next five years if you elect me president.”

The repeated affirmation of the importance of values in Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign speeches not only rid the French Right of its “complexes,” it also strongly helped bring voters, who were turning toward the extremes out of disappointment, back to the Right in Parliament.

• It explains Mr. Sarkozy’s very strong result in the first round: 31.18% of the vote, the highest relative score for a candidate of the Republican Right since 1974, when Valéry Giscard d’Estaing garnered 32.6% of the vote, and the highest absolute score ever obtained by a candidate in the first round, with 11,448,663 votes.

• Mr. Sarkozy placed work at the heart of his project. He denounced policies that responded to the failure of some by blocking the success of others. He called on his country to get back to work.

• But he went farther than that. He appropriated the Left’s traditional theme of defending workers, making numerous references to such figures as Jean Jaurès and Léon Blum. He denounced the Left’s abandonment of workers. He committed himself on their behalf.

• He also evoked his work within the government to reaffirm his commitment to security. But he considerably enlarged its scope, associating it during the campaign with the values of authority, respect and merit, which he proposed to restore to families and schools.

• He continued his fight to control immigration. He denounced the “doctrinaire thinking” that made the subject taboo and proposed adopting a responsible policy reconciling controlled immigration and co-development.

• Finally, he championed the idea of an irreproachable democracy that doesn’t survive on the backs of the French. He proposed lowering taxes after controlling public spending. He rejected the idea of future generations stuck with the bills incurred by their predecessors.

Reinventing the French nation

“Our history is long but less ancient than what the future promises. No one will wait for us if we don’t decide to take it in hand. The world is changing. France cannot and must not remain immobile.”

Nicolas Sarkozy drew the lessons of the failure of the French referendum on the European Constitution. He embraced the analysis of Max Gallo, who saw in it an unsatisfied need for “nationhood.” His presidential project reinvents the French nation, drawing from its history and planning its future in a globalized world.

• He honored the past by demanding the restoration of strong symbols in the educational system (the letter of Guy Môquet) and by putting human rights at the heart of French diplomacy and the Republic. He advocated a new form of democratizing culture, which he wants to make accessible to a larger number of people.

• But Mr. Sarkozy was not laying out the contours of a closed, inward-looking nation. On the contrary, the nation he envisions is a nation engaged in European construction and globalization. He responds to the fear of Europe and globalization with the proposition that France must take its international destiny in hand. He counters immobilism with dynamism, opposition with proposition.

• He is facing the reality of the new threats that have emerged since September 11, 2001. He champions a pragmatic approach to the Atlantic Alliance and the European Defense. He is opening the way to France’s return to NATO’s integrated structures. For him, Americans and Europeans need both the Atlantic Alliance and European Defense, not just one of them.

• Once again without taboos, once again breaking with the past, he affirms that French foreign policy needs a true doctrine. He proposes to revive alliances by becoming a dynamic, constructive partner of its natural allies.

Transcending conservative approaches

“To my mind, there can’t be half-measures: Respecting people means respecting each person without exception.”

During the second-round campaign, Nicolas Sarkozy once again broke with tradition. He made a point of transcending traditional Rightist conservative approaches by extolling fraternity, the fight against poverty, equal opportunity.

• He enumerated a long litany of attempts to fight poverty by leveling down, countering them with the restoration and value of work. He countered work-sharing with wealth- sharing.

• To those who no longer have homes, he proposed the right to bring suit if necessary in order to obtain housing. He countered the proliferation of allocations with one-on-one attention restoring one’s personal dignity.

• He countered a growing feeling of resentment among the French with the restoration of a state that offers protection.

This last break with the traditional cleavages between the French Left and Right was not the smallest: it was a harbinger of the policy of openness since implemented by Mr. Sarkozy following his election as president, in keeping with his oft-repeated conviction: “Seek out talent wherever it may be found.” (Bernard Kouchner, Martin Hirsch, Eric Besson, Fadela Amara, etc.)

Work, independent thinking, convictions and candor allowed Nicolas Sarkozy to win the trust of the French. The man who ran for election has an unshakable faith in politics and democracy. He has faith in people’s ability to choose their destiny.

It was with this faith, this conviction that he threw himself into the fray, without fear of adversity or attack. It was with them that he dared everything, enunciated everything, broke with immobility, fatalism, renunciation, resignation and conservatism.

Faced with a future it perceived as uncertain, France chose to trust him to help it regain its own confidence, its own pride.