The couple had a daughter, Giulia, a few months before the election. Sarkozy, who is twice divorced, also has a son from his second marriage and two sons from his first marriage. Unlike most of the French ruling class, Sarkozy did not go to the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, but trained as a lawyer. He also studied political science in Paris before launching himself into politics.
His rise to the top began as mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, an affluent Paris suburb which he ran from Initially a protege of Jacques Chirac , he became the right-hand man of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur in , serving as budget minister. When he backed Mr Balladur for the presidency in , the decision caused a lasting rift with Chirac, the successful candidate.
Chirac famously chided him in his memoirs for being "irritable, rash, overconfident and allowing for no doubt, least of all regarding himself". As interior minister in he notoriously talked of hosing down troubled housing estates, describing young delinquents in the Paris suburbs as racaille , or rabble. That blunt comment - made before the riots in neglected suburbs - encouraged some critics to put him in the same category as the then far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Later as president he pushed through measures to curb illegal immigration - including highly controversial mass deportations of Roma Gypsies.
At the same time, he advocated positive discrimination to help reduce youth unemployment - a challenge to those wedded to the French idea of equality. Some of his appointments surprised the French political establishment: Rachida Dati became France's first cabinet minister of North African origin, in charge of justice, while Socialist Bernard Kouchner was made foreign minister.
Towards the end of his presidency, unemployment claims surged to their highest level in 12 years. Yet he had been at the forefront of the European response to the global economic crisis in and helped establish the G20 summits involving the world's biggest economies.
He also saw through unpopular, but arguably necessary, reforms: raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 ; relaxing the strict hour working week introduced by the Socialists; overhauling the universities and altering the tax system to encourage overtime and home ownership.
On the international stage, Sarkozy was often described as an Atlanticist, though he opposed the US-led war in Iraq. In March , France was first to send warplanes into action against Gaddafi's forces in Libya , spearheading the foreign intervention that enabled the Libyan rebels to succeed.
The Western role has drawn some criticism however because Libya quickly descended into factional fighting. Sarkozy was credited with brokering an end to the August conflict between Russia and Georgia , though Russia later consolidated its grip on parts of Georgia. In response to the global financial crisis of , he vowed to punish speculators and advocated a strong state role in the economy. But he is avoiding discussing his record in power. The thorny issue of what became of his reform ambitions is left to his ruling UMP party, which has distributed 6m leaflets detailing Sarkozy's "top 10 reforms".
These include raising the pension age to 62 , giving universities control over their budgets, limiting the impact of strikes by introducing a compulsory minimum service on public transport, expelling 30, illegal immigrants a year and banning women in the niqab , or Muslim full-face covering, from all public spaces.
He promised to put morals back into discredited French politics, then tried to parachute his student son into a key business post; saw disgraced ministers stand down over issues such as paying for cigars with state money, or the foreign minister who quit after holidaying with cronies of the Tunisian dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali during that country's revolution.
Judges were already investigating whether brown envelopes from the Bettencourt household financed Sarkozy's party. Personal image holds the key to Sarkozy's re-election strategy.
Last month, he held a three-hour off-the-record briefing with a few select journalists, to restyle himself as humble. He said he would quit politics if he lost the election. On prime-time TV, he admitted having "regrets".
He is working on what he has called a "hyper-intimate" confession, a mea culpa to the nation, to make him seem "more human", in the words of a spokeswoman. Hollande is styling himself as "Mr Normal" against the implied "abnormal" Sarkozy. Sarkozy has launched a last-minute blitz of reforms, in part designed to eclipse his criticised record in office. This includes the deeply unpopular shifting of France's hefty social charges away from businesses and on to consumers by raising VAT.
Supporters call it his "Captain Courage" phase, to show that the national interest of crisis-hit France is more important than his own popularity. It's about being "presidential" in the face of crisis, his last trump card. The support of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is crucial because Europe is one of the last platforms where he is taken seriously by French voters. Conferences are springing up on the vexing question: what is Sarkozysm? Francois Fillon's rival in the run-off was regarded as the frontrunner for most of the primary race.
A year-old former prime minister with a technocratic image, Alain Juppe had campaigned as a moderate and a unifying figure in the aftermath of jihadist attacks. He is embroiled in a high-profile scandal over the breach of campaign spending limits in the election.
In September a judge ruled that Mr Sarkozy should stand trial in the case. Turnout in the primary first round was higher than anticipated, with almost four million people taking part. Le Pen stalks French centre-right contest. Le Pen says Trump win boosts her chances. Will Trump-style revolt engulf Europe? Image source, AFP. Nicolas Sarkozy has now lost his second bid for re-election as president.
Image source, Reuters. Mr Fillon ran on a centrist platform advocating market reforms. What does Fillon stand for?
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