Monday evening, at the House of Heritage, Louis Sarkozy, younger son of the former President of the Republic, was the guest of the CLAB (Liaison Committee of Bruscan associations). Come to present his work Napoleon Bonaparte – The Empire of Bookshe attracted a large audience. He confided in his career, his vision of politics and his passion for the emperor.
As a child, Louis Sarkozy grew up in the atmosphere of the Palais de la République. “I spent a little year at the Elysée Palace full time, and a lot of vacation in the heart of power”he says. The decor marked him: “I played in the play where Napoleon signed his second abdication. When we are my father’s son, the story of France, the great characters, is something omnipresent.”
From this singular experience, he has a particular relationship with power, both intimate and critical. “I really appreciate politics, not necessarily the personality, but action, activity”he says. And to develop: “The problem, in France, is that we have emptied the state life of politics and the political life of power. Result: a feeling of helplessness that nourishes the rise of extremes.”
An analysis that he naturally connects to him of the moment: “Napoleon’s work is that: a policy that had the power to embody a vision and transform France. I admire the political that makes decisions.” In Napoleon Bonaparte – The Empire of Booksit highlights the reading bulimia of the emperor. Before each of his campaigns, he commanded hundreds of works: topography, population statistics, agriculture, military accounts of generals passed by these territories …
The power of books
“He read everything, even the most arid texts, without being satisfied with summary sheets”underlines the author. This frenzy was such that a well -placed spy could guess the next destination of the French armies just by observing the books of books. The information was deemed so strategic that purchases remained secret. For Napoleon, the book became a full military, political and symbolic tool. “It is the first French head of state to be painted in front of a library, with Plutarch on his desk”recalls Louis Sarkozy, a sign that the works were also an integral part of his power staging.
Napoleon was a genius of storytelling. “Each battle is a painting. We show it crossing the Alps on a white horse worthy of Hannibal, when in reality he was on a donkey and almost stayed there”he smiles. Two centuries later, this image factory continues to feed the Napoleonic legend, universally recognizable. But for him, the most precious heritage is elsewhere: in Stoic wisdom. Online seneca of sight: “Remember your life as if you were constantly observed by a great man from the past.” “Me, it helps me enormously, psychologically. Playing sports, working, writing … It structures me”says Louis Sarkozy. “But if we compare ourselves, we commit suicide. Churchill at my age already had three books and two wars behind him, Bonaparte came out of Arcole, Nicolas Sarkozy was about to become mayor …”
Sarkozy heritage
The parallel with his father, he assumes it without locking himself there: “We sometimes compare ourselves, but for our mental health it is better to avoid.” His elder, he recalls, remains above all “The son of a Hungarian immigrant without a word of French, who entered the Foreign Legion. We have nothing to envy to the American dream. His election was with the highest participation rate of the Fifth Republic.” He concludes, admiring: “Today, it is more posed, almost in the posture of the sage. It is really the one we come to consult, the councilor, the oracle, the temple of Delphi …”