“Killing the father” to empower himself and existing himself, said Freud. And concerning Louis Sarkozy, 28 -year -old editorialist in LCI and Current valuesfree yourself from Father Nicolas Sarkozy ex-president of the Republic is not an easy task. Especially when he largely embodied “a bling-bling president”, at least in the early days of his mandate (2007-2012).
The fact remains that Louis Sarkozy, who studied in the USA at the Military School of Valley Forge, then in Washington in history and philosophy, has just published Napoleon Bonaparte: The Empire of Books. A publication first made in English, “which is a good summary book”, estimates François Houdecek, historian and president of the Napoleon Foundation. “It shows another face of Napoleon, who was also a man of culture and writing,” continues the historian.
So much for the literary approach. But it would be “naive not to see that he has ambitions of landing in the French political field”, adds Christian Le Bart, professor of political science, author in particular of Publish to be elected, with whom 20 Minutes met. Indeed, in recent months and more in recent days, Louis Sarkozy has been on the track to launch out in politics, first on the occasion of the 2026 municipal elections.
Can we consider it as a political book, that is to say from a policy?
At this stage he is the son of, with perhaps looks at Neuilly or Menton. He still presents himself as a possible heir to the Sarkozy dynasty. It is a way of existing in public space. It still has a political book in the sense that the choice of theme is not neutral – very anchored on the right. François Mitterand’s daughter had played the card of La Normienne who writes essays or novels. Napoleon, it is very marked in political terms on the right and that is part of the continuity of the Sarkozian imagination. So it’s not absurd to see it as an entry into public political space.
Is it also a way of proving a relative intellectual credibility?
Clearly yes. Especially since his father had this problem of weak cultural legitimacy. Nicolas Sarkozy was himself defined as a child on TV and had tried to redefine the presidential role, leaving the old literary model last, of the president of the letter. And he had bitten his fingers a bit, after making the Princess In particular, by making a fine honorable fine. So with the son we are not there. But we choose a national symbol. It is rather a marker figure like Joan of Arc or Jaurès.
-He first published in English in the US and Great Britain. Is it a diverted way of not being too first degree on a French political ambition?
By his career and his studies too, there is clearly a desire to play the card of the International. No doubt that it would be a trial of intention to him, but you should not be naive either than to say that he has ambitions of landing in the French political field. So it can be a way of saying: “I exist independently of my father, far from him and on another scale than French popol (” political policy “)”. There is both tearing and distance from France but also the accumulation of capital which can be mobilized nationally.
Why first publish internationally?
Politicians usually have no interest in publishing abroad. So in relation to the model that I put forward, we publish to appear in the electoral public space, it is a counterexample. But who can be explained by the fact which he is very young and that he is not in a short -term strategy of presidentialization. He seeks to exist. And we can exist by being European Commissioner, Diplomat, Ambassador to the UN, so many things that seek you in appearance but which give capital which can be used later in the national public space.
What meaning to give to the choice of Napoleon as the object of his book?
While it is Juppé with Montesquieu, Bayrou with Henry IV, it is a question each time to glorify. These are hagiographic biographies that also work like self -portraits. These are never biographies for the pleasure of historical scholarship, these are biographies that are supposed to serve the moment. Bayrou said very clearly: “Henry IV put an end to the wars of religion, but we are in wars of religion”.
Taking Napoleon for a message that would be for everyone would seem a bit early. But it can be for first asserting, gathering and imposing themselves within his political family.
That he takes as a study of the book The Napoleon library is interesting. This testifies to a relationship with books that is not at all that of his father. A slightly more physical report, a little free scholarship, a love of the book whose father had believed to be able to free himself. There is something of the order of symbolic rupture. This is a way of saying I do not belong to this bling-bling bourgeoisie, I am also able to situate myself on the ground of ideas.
