The former President of the Republic spoke at length to Guillaume Pley on “Legend” broadcast on YouTube.
Followed by nearly two million people, the YouTube channel Legend, created and hosted by Guillaume Pley, achieved a “coup”: hosting the former President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, for more than an hour. The concept of the interview: look back on the guest's life and try to draw great lessons from it. With today's guest – who was convinced by his daughter – the material is there. “There are two categories of people: those who seize opportunities and those who think about seizing them,” says the former Minister of the Interior.
Facing Guillaume Pley, Nicolas Sarkozy looked back on his rise. “I come from the bottom, I didn't know anyone, I was born on a small river with a small fishing rod, there were small fish and I dreamed of fishing for white sharks. This is the story of my life. » The former head of state sweeps away his career: the first election in Neuilly, the school hostage-taking with Human Bomb, the Ministry of the Interior, the 2007 election or the defeat of 2012. And gives his political survival advice: “Nothing is ever finished, life is a succession of rebirths. »
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“Explosive” barbecue
He also talks about some of his international trips. One day, he is invited to the Brazilian presidential palace where Lula is organizing a barbecue. “He did the barbecue himself, he was proud of it. He had taken a large piece of meat – I don't like it at all, I prefer minced meat. He said to me: “In five minutes, it’s ready.” We are on the terrace and suddenly there is an explosion. All the bodyguards arrive, we think it's an attack… It was the barbecue that exploded because he had added too much charcoal. Finally, we ate a salad,” he laughs.
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The interview slides into the intimate realm, notably the meeting with Carla Bruni in 2007 at Jacques Séguéla: “I'm a guy who makes decisions. We met on November 13 and we got married on February 2,” he remembers, tackling François Hollande in passing: “A president doesn’t put his girlfriend at the Élysée, if you think I’m targeting someone one, you are right. » “Two months after our wedding, we made a state visit to England and we stayed in Buckingham. Everything went very well. » “In love, as in life, fragility is a guarantee of solidity, because we pay more attention to what is fragile,” he concludes the sequence.
“France, the terrible and the sublime”
If the interview does not have a political aspect – the former head of state does not comment on the current difficulties of the government or the delicate question of the budget – he delivers his “certain idea of France”: “We must dream tall, even if it means appearing arrogant, that’s the French destiny. France is the Terror and Valmy. The terrible or the sublime… We are not people of the happy medium. This is why France must be led very strongly with the promise of a great destiny. The worst thing today is social networks which have made people believe that society is horizontal when everything is vertical. We need leadership,” judges Nicolas Sarkozy.
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“I'm a feline, I go out in the street, I know by looking around me what the lady thinks of me. When I get on the plane, I know if the stewardess voted for me or not. It’s not arrogance, but experience,” he concludes, swearing, after the broadcast of a sidewalk microphone calling on him to run again, that this is not his project. “Then circumstances are what they are. »
