On a grey December day in Paris, hundreds braved the chill and queued for hours outside the Lamartine bookshop in the city’s upscale 16th arrondissement. Their goal? To catch a glimpse of Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s first post-war president to serve time behind bars, and to get their hands on a signed copy of his newly released memoir, Diary of a Prisoner. The book, published by Fayard and already topping Amazon’s pre-order charts, recounts the 20 days Sarkozy spent in solitary confinement at La Santé prison this autumn—a chapter unprecedented in the annals of French and European Union politics.
Supporters, some visibly emotional, greeted the 70-year-old former president with chants of “Nicolas! Nicolas!” as he arrived, flanked by a heavy police cordon. The atmosphere was electric, tinged with both admiration and controversy. Femen activists attempted to disrupt the event, shouting “Nicolas, get lost, you poor idiot! You belong in prison!” before being quickly removed by police. Yet the prevailing mood was one of solidarity with Sarkozy, as fans like 68-year-old François Duthu declared, “I’m so outraged that the former president went to prison in a free country like ours – it’s a scandal, truly.” Agnes Gras, 59, echoed the sentiment, recalling Sarkozy’s heroism during the 1993 Neuilly kindergarten hostage crisis and noting, “He accomplished a great deal.”
The memoir’s rapid publication—just a month after Sarkozy’s release on November 10, 2025—was no accident. According to Euronews, it was part of a meticulously crafted communications strategy designed to seize control of the narrative and influence public opinion before others could shape it for him. Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, a professor of political communication at Sciences Po Paris, explained, “They had to release this book at record speed because the idea was to frame the debate as quickly as possible to prevent others from building their own narrative.”
Sarkozy’s legal troubles have been headline news for years, but the events leading to his incarceration are particularly explosive. In September 2025, a Paris court convicted him of criminal association for allegedly accepting illegal campaign financing from Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan regime to secure his 2007 presidential victory. The sentence—five years in prison and a ban from holding office—marked a historic first for modern France. Sarkozy, who began serving his sentence on October 21, was released after 20 days pending appeal, with the next trial phase scheduled from March to June 2026. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing, insisting, as quoted by multiple outlets, that the ruling “would undermine faith in France’s judiciary.”
Diary of a Prisoner is a stark, unvarnished account of Sarkozy’s time in solitary. He describes his cell as “a low-end hotel, except for the armoured door and the bars,” and recalls the chilling welcome: an inmate “relentlessly striking the bars of his cell” with metal, making him feel he’d entered “hell.” Meals arrived in small plastic trays, “mushy, soggy baguette” included, which he mostly refused, subsisting instead on dairy products and cereal bars. He was allowed one hour a day in a small gym, typically spent on a basic treadmill, and received visits from his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and his lawyers. Sarkozy wrote of the “greyness and solitude” that marked his days, praying on his first night for “the strength to bear the cross of this injustice.”
The former president’s reflections on prison life are laced with criticism of the French penal system. He described “the most inhumane violence” as a daily reality and questioned the system’s ability to help inmates reintegrate into society. Known for his tough-on-crime rhetoric during his presidency, Sarkozy now promises a more nuanced approach: “Upon my release, my comments would be more elaborate and nuanced than what I had previously expressed on all these topics.”
But the memoir is not just a personal reckoning. It is also a political treatise, brimming with Sarkozy’s assessments of France’s current political landscape and his own party’s future. He takes aim at President Emmanuel Macron, criticizing the “disastrous decision” to dissolve the National Assembly in 2024 and revealing a strained relationship: “I did not understand, much less accept, what I considered to be a whim that was as harmful to France as it was to its author.” Sarkozy further disclosed his disappointment when Macron did not intervene to prevent him from being stripped of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest distinction, in June 2025.
On the subject of the far right, Sarkozy is characteristically direct. He recounts a phone call with Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, who asked if he would join a “republican front” to contain her party in the event of early elections. His answer: “No, and what’s more, I will take responsibility for this by taking a public position on the subject when the time comes.” In the memoir, he writes, “The National Rally is not a danger for the Republic… They represent so many French people, respect the results of the elections and participate in the functioning of our democracy.” This marks a significant departure from the longstanding French political doctrine of cordon sanitaire against the far right, and signals a potential realignment within the conservative Republicans party, which Sarkozy argues must embrace “the broadest possible spirit of unity.”
Sarkozy’s legal woes do not end with his 2025 conviction. In 2024, he was also found guilty of exceeding campaign spending limits during his failed 2012 re-election bid, with the Court of Cassation upholding the conviction. While six months of that sentence were suspended and could be served via electronic monitoring, the guilty verdict is now final under French law. Yet, as Arnaud Benedetti, editor-in-chief of the Political and Parliamentary Review, told Euronews, “Sarkozy is a politician who never leaves anyone indifferent. Despite his detractors, he retains a loyal following that appreciates his personality.”
Indeed, the extraordinary commercial success of Diary of a Prisoner—a rarity for political memoirs in France—reflects both the public’s fascination with Sarkozy and the unprecedented nature of his story. “There is a kind of voyeurism, a desire to peek through the keyhole and see what life is like for a leader in prison,” Moreau-Chevrolet observed. Benedetti added, “All the ingredients for a publishing success are here… the situation is so unusual that it inevitably sparks curiosity, even interest. From a marketing point of view, the product is exceptionally effective.”
Yet, as the dust settles from the book launch and the media frenzy, questions remain about the ultimate impact of Sarkozy’s memoir. Will it help him win the “media battle” ahead of his appeal trial, as his strategists hope? Or will it simply add another chapter to the tumultuous story of a divisive, charismatic figure who continues to shape French political debate? As Benedetti cautioned, “A publishing success does not guarantee a political one.”
For now, Sarkozy’s supporters remain undeterred. Virgile Dodeigne, an 18-year-old student, summed up the mood: “I think this is an important moment, given that he is the only president, or at least the first and hopefully the last president of the Fifth Republic, to have gone to prison.” Whether history will judge Sarkozy as a victim of injustice, a flawed hero, or something else entirely, his latest memoir ensures that, for better or worse, his voice will not soon be forgotten.
