Sarkozy's father writes tell-all book for his kids
Source: Agencies |
March 30, 2010, Tuesday
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FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy's father, a self-confessed bon vivant and womanizer, said he is setting the record on his life straight in an autobiography written above all for his children, and meant to counter claims he was a bad father.
Pal Sarkozy wrote "Tant de Vie" - which translates as "So Much Life" - after his son, the French president, advised him against filing lawsuits against his disparagers and instead to "answer later ... about all these unjust accusations," the 81-year-old said on Sunday.
So the book is above all a family affair, he said. "This wasn't for the world, it was for my family."
"I wanted to talk to my children," and a book was "the simplest thing," he said, on the sidelines of France's annual Book Fair in Paris.
A Hungarian immigrant who arrived in France in 1948 penniless, Pal Sarkozy concedes that he hid his past and failed to pass on his heritage to his five children - four sons and a daughter from two of his four wives - because "I wanted them to become French."
The book gives a rare look into the life of a president's father - the first modern-day French president with both parents still living.
But Pal Sarkozy questioned whether his son, Nicolas, will want to make a run for re-election in 2012.
"I think for him he will have a lot fewer worries than he has now" if he doesn't seek a second mandate, the father said, looking relaxed in blue jeans and a light blue pullover. "He won't have this enormous burden of 70 million people."
As a child, he said, Nicolas was the most "turbulent" among his sons. Today, the president maintains a high-speed agenda, but first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy calms him, his father said.
"Each time she enters a room and Nicolas is there, you see right away that Nicolas relaxes."
Pal Sarkozy wrote "Tant de Vie" - which translates as "So Much Life" - after his son, the French president, advised him against filing lawsuits against his disparagers and instead to "answer later ... about all these unjust accusations," the 81-year-old said on Sunday.
So the book is above all a family affair, he said. "This wasn't for the world, it was for my family."
"I wanted to talk to my children," and a book was "the simplest thing," he said, on the sidelines of France's annual Book Fair in Paris.
A Hungarian immigrant who arrived in France in 1948 penniless, Pal Sarkozy concedes that he hid his past and failed to pass on his heritage to his five children - four sons and a daughter from two of his four wives - because "I wanted them to become French."
The book gives a rare look into the life of a president's father - the first modern-day French president with both parents still living.
But Pal Sarkozy questioned whether his son, Nicolas, will want to make a run for re-election in 2012.
"I think for him he will have a lot fewer worries than he has now" if he doesn't seek a second mandate, the father said, looking relaxed in blue jeans and a light blue pullover. "He won't have this enormous burden of 70 million people."
As a child, he said, Nicolas was the most "turbulent" among his sons. Today, the president maintains a high-speed agenda, but first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy calms him, his father said.
"Each time she enters a room and Nicolas is there, you see right away that Nicolas relaxes."
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