Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy (born 28 January 1955 in Paris) served as the 23rd President of the French Republic from 16 May 2007 to 15 May 2012. A member of the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), he previously held the posts of Minister of the Interior (2002–2004, 2005–2007) and Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry (2004) under President Jacques Chirac.

Sarkozy won the 2007 presidential election by defeating Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal in the runoff. His foreign policy was marked by France's full reintegration into NATO's integrated military command in 2009, after more than four decades outside it following Charles de Gaulle's 1966 withdrawal. He launched the Union for the Mediterranean in Paris in July 2008, bringing together EU member states and Mediterranean littoral countries.

During France's EU Council presidency in the second half of 2008, Sarkozy mediated the ceasefire ending the Russia–Georgia war in August 2008 and coordinated European responses to the global financial crisis, hosting the November 2008 G20 summit preparations. In 2011, France, alongside the United Kingdom, was a principal driver of UN Security Council Resolution 1973, which authorised the no-fly zone over Libya and led to NATO's Operation Unified Protector against Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

Domestically, Sarkozy pushed through a controversial pension reform in 2010 raising the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, and oversaw constitutional reforms in 2008. He lost the 2012 presidential runoff to François Hollande.

After leaving office, Sarkozy faced multiple judicial proceedings. He was convicted in the "Bismuth" / wiretapping case in 2021 for corruption and influence peddling, a conviction upheld on appeal in 2023 and confirmed by the Court of Cassation in December 2024. He was also convicted in the Bygmalion case relating to illegal overspending in his 2012 campaign. In 2025, a Paris court convicted him in the Libyan campaign-financing case, making him the first former French president sentenced to actual imprisonment in the modern Fifth Republic era.