Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy (nikɔla saʁkɔzi; born Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa; 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as the President of France and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012. Before his presidency, he was the leader of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party. During Jacques Chirac's second presidential term he served as Minister of the Interior except between March 2004 and May 2005 when he was minister of Finances. Sarkozy was also mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of France, from 1983 to 2002. He was Minister of the Budget in the government of Édouard Balladur (1993–95) during François Mitterrand's last term. During his term, he faced the late-2000s financial crisis (followed by the recession and the debt crisis caused by it) and the Arab Spring (especially in Tunisia, Libya, and Syria). He married Italian-French singer-songwriter Carla Bruni on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris. In foreign affairs, Sarkozy promised a strengthening of the entente cordiale with the United Kingdom and closer cooperation with the United States. In the 2012 election, the Socialist François Hollande defeated Sarkozy by 3.2%. After leaving the Presidential office, Sarkozy vowed to retire from public life before coming back in September 2014, being subsequently reelected as UMP leader (renamed The Republicans in 2015). On 2 July 2014, Sarkozy was charged with corruption by French prosecutors. In 2016, he ran in the Republican presidential primary, and was eliminated in the first round of voting.