Those hoping that Nicolas Sarkozy might ride to the rescue and save France from five more years of the most unpopular president in its history are in for a wake up call on Tuesday when a documentary on his failed re-election bid is aired, reports The Daily Telegraph.
Despite rampant speculation that Mr Sarkozy is preparing to run again for the presidency in 2017, the fly-on-the-wall film shows him telling his wife that a comeback “screws up your life”.
The scene, shot minutes after Mr Sarkozy’s defeat last year to François Hollande, was filmed by a friend of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
It shows Mr Sarkozy trying to put a brave face on defeat before his aides and family, saying: “I’m not at all bitter. I led the campaign I wanted to lead. It’s better to go like that [with a narrow defeat] than with a huge kick up the backside.”
He dismisses the idea of becoming leader of the opposition or of standing for the French legislature. His wife, however, comforts him and suggests his final speech should be sufficiently “ambiguous” to allow him to return to politics, adding: “Did you see how the people loved you?”
But the film shows Mr Sarkozy saying clearly that the prospect of a comeback “doesn’t exist”. “No, it isn’t ambiguous about politics,” he says, of his final farewell speech. “It’s ambiguous about affection. [It says] I remain one of you. I love you. But the idea of a comeback doesn’t exist. I don’t believe it. And anyway, it screws up your life.” He then expresses his desire to take up work as a lawyer again and to buy a new house for his family, saying: “A page has turned.”
Intimate Campaign, a documentary shot by Farida Khelfa, a model, actress and close friend of Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy, offers an unprecedented insight into the couple’s intimacy during the former leader’s four-month electoral campaign.
Read more of this report from The Daily Telegraph.