PARIS (AP) — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy described the prison where he spent 20 days as a noisy, “all gray” world of “inhumane violence” in a book released Wednesday that also offers political advice on how his conservative party should appeal to far-right voters.
In ‘A Prisoner’s Diary’, the 70-year-old says his own tough attitude towards crime has taken on a new dimension as he recounts the unusual turn in his life after he was found guilty of criminal association in financing his winning 2007 campaign with funds from Libya.
The court sentenced him in September to five years in prison, a decision he appealed. He was released on probation after 20 days behind bars.
The book offers a rare look inside La Santé prison in Paris, where Sarkozy was kept in solitary confinement and kept strictly away from other inmates for security reasons. His loneliness was only broken by regular visits from his wife, supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and his lawyers.
Sarkozy wrote that his cell looked like a “cheap hotel, except for the armored door and the bars”, with a hard mattress, a plastic-like pillow and a shower that produced only a thin stream of water. He described the “deafening noise” of the prison, mostly at night.
Opening the window on his first day behind bars, he heard an inmate “relentlessly banging on the bars of his cell with a metal object.”
“The atmosphere was menacing. Welcome to hell!”
Sarkozy said he refused meals served in small plastic trays along with a “soft, wet baguette” — their smell, he wrote, made him nauseous. Instead, he ate dairy products and cereal bars. He was allowed one hour a day in a small gym, where he mostly used a basic treadmill.
Sarkozy says he was informed of several violent incidents during his time behind bars, which he called “a nightmare”.
“The most inhumane violence was the daily reality of this place,” he wrote, raising questions about the prison system’s ability to reintegrate people after serving their sentences.
Sarkozy, known for his tough rhetoric on punishing criminals, said he had promised himself that “upon release, my comments will be more elaborate and nuanced than what I have previously expressed on all these subjects.”
Political reflections
As well as recounting life in prison, Sarkozy used the book to offer strategic political advice for his conservative Republican party and revealed that he spoke on the phone from prison to far-right leader Marine Le Pen, once a fierce rival.
Le Pen’s National Rally “is not a danger to the Republic,” he wrote. “We do not share the same ideas when it comes to economic policy, we do not share the same history… and I notice that there may still be some problematic figures among them. But they represent so many French people, they respect the results of the elections and participate in the functioning of our democracy.”
Sarkozy argued that rebuilding his weakened Republican party “can only be achieved through the broadest possible spirit of unity”.
The Republican Party has in recent years moved away from a decades-old position among the parties that any electoral strategy must aim to limit the far right, even if it means losing a district to another challenger.
However, political analyst Roland Cayrol said Sarkozy’s comments came as “a thunderbolt” to the decades-old position of French conservatives that the National Rally does not “share the same values” and “no electoral alliance is possible” with the far right.
The former president from 2007 to 2012 has been retired from active politics for years, but remains very influential, especially in conservative circles.
Following Sarkozy’s comments, senior Republican officials did not call for any real cooperation agreement with the National Rally, but instead indicated they wanted to focus on ways to get far-right voters to choose conservative candidates.
Strained ties with Macron
Sarkozy also mentioned his former friendship with centrist President Emmanuel Macron. The two men met at the Élysée presidential palace just days before Sarkozy went to prison.
According to Sarkozy, Macron raised security concerns at La Santé prison and offered to transfer him to another facility, which he refused. Instead, two policemen were assigned to the neighboring cell to protect him around the clock.
Sarkozy said he had lost confidence in Macron after the president failed to intervene to prevent him from being stripped of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award, in June.
Last month, Sarkozy was convicted of illegally financing his 2012 candidacy campaign, in a major blow to his legacy and reputation. He was sentenced to a year in prison, half suspended, which he will now be able to serve at home, monitored with an electronic bracelet or other requirements to be determined by a judge.
Last year, France’s highest court upheld an appeals court ruling that found Sarkozy guilty of trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about legal proceedings in which he was involved.