It is rare for a former president of France to pen a memoir from behind bars, and rarer still for that book to become the most talked-about publication of the season. Yet, as December 2025 draws to a close, Nicolas Sarkozy’s “Le Journal d’un Prisonnier” (“The Journal of a Prisoner”) has achieved just that—rising to the top of French Amazon’s bestseller list and igniting debate across the political spectrum. The book, written during Sarkozy’s 20-day stint at La Santé prison following his conviction in a campaign-finance scandal, is as much a personal chronicle as it is a calculated act of political communication.
Sarkozy’s sentence began on October 21, 2025, and ended less than three weeks later, on November 10, when he was granted conditional release while appealing the verdict. According to RFI, the release of his memoir just a month after leaving prison is no coincidence. Many observers, including Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, a political communication specialist at Sciences Po Paris, see the book as a deliberate move to seize control of the narrative and preserve Sarkozy’s influence ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
“For him, this is a long-term fight. The aim is to make himself heard as much as possible, with every tool available,” Moreau-Chevrolet told RFI. The memoir, he argues, is no mere exercise in self-reflection. Rather, it is a strategic effort to “frame the debate and shape how the public sees this episode.”
Inside the twelve-square-metre cell of La Santé, assigned prisoner number 320535, Sarkozy wrote his memoir in seven-to-eight-hour bursts at a flimsy desk. He describes the environment with a blend of stoic humor and self-pity: “Prison is louder at night than during the day,” he writes, recounting how his neighbor sang songs from “The Lion King” and banged his spoon against the bars. The discomforts of prison life—the hard mattress, the awkwardly placed mirror, and the incommodious shower—are detailed with the precision of a man accustomed to better things.
Sarkozy’s daily routine was a testament to his discipline. Isolated in his cell for safety reasons, with two bodyguards nearby, he refused to eat prison food, subsisting instead on yogurt, cereal bars, mineral water, apple juice, and a few sweet treats. He ignored the hot plate, despite instructions from a former chief of staff on how to boil an egg. Still, his cell was “clean and rather luminous,” and he had access to a treadmill and an in-room television—luxuries, perhaps, by prison standards, but reminders of his former status.
Throughout the memoir, Sarkozy leans heavily on emotion, a tactic that, according to Moreau-Chevrolet, “fits with his wider media defence strategy.” The former president wastes little time addressing his conviction, instead focusing on themes of injustice and vengeance. He draws frequent parallels between himself and literary figures such as Edmond Dantès, the wronged protagonist of Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo, one of the two books he brought to prison (the other being Jean-Christian Petitfils’s biography of Jesus Christ). The symbolism is clear: Sarkozy casts himself as a victim of a shadowy conspiracy, set on eventual vindication and revenge.
“He places himself in a future where he has won his legal battles and taken revenge for this humiliation,” Moreau-Chevrolet explained to RFI. Sarkozy himself writes, “I started my life again.” The narrative is not one of redemption, but of rebirth and resilience. The former president claims he knew he would be released at his appeal hearing and stayed active, jogging immediately after regaining his freedom. The book’s message is unmistakable: he remains “in fighting mode.”
Sarkozy’s memoir is also a meditation on isolation and loss. He laments missed moments with his wife, model and singer Carla Bruni, and their four children. His third grandchild was born during his incarceration, a bittersweet milestone. In nearly eighteen years of marriage, he notes, he and Bruni had never been separated for more than a few days—a record that, remarkably, remained unbroken even during his time in prison. (Reports from Mediapart suggest that the French Minister of Justice intervened to grant Bruni special visiting privileges.)
Adding a touch of intrigue, a mysterious bouquet of flowers signed “Edmond Dantès” was delivered daily to the couple’s home during Sarkozy’s incarceration. The sender, it turned out, was a friend hoping to boost the former president’s morale.
Spiritual reflection is another thread woven through the memoir. Sarkozy describes a conversion experience, taking communion for the first time in years and striking up a relationship with a young prison chaplain. “By a scheduling miracle, that evening there was a PSG match being broadcast on Canal+, live from Leverkusen, Germany,” he writes, interpreting the coincidence as a sign of divine intervention. He vows, “If I get out of this hell, I’ll go to Lourdes to see the sick and the desperate.”
Yet the most consequential conversion may be political. For decades, French politicians across the spectrum have supported the “republican front,” a pact to block the far-right Rassemblement National (formerly Front National) from power. In a bombshell revelation, Sarkozy announces in his memoir that he will no longer uphold this tradition and has promised Marine Le Pen, the party’s former leader, his support in the 2027 presidential election. Libération called this “a crucial step in the union of the right with the far right.” The move, while not entirely unexpected, is unprecedented for a former French president and signals a major realignment in the nation’s political landscape.
The book’s rapid publication—just weeks after Sarkozy’s release—underscores its strategic purpose. “Speed matters—not letting others talk first and taking part in building the narrative rather than suffering it,” Moreau-Chevrolet told RFI. By flooding the media with his version of events, Sarkozy aims to ensure that his story, not that of his accusers, dominates public discourse. The reasons for his conviction, complex and buried in a 400-page investigative file, are left in the background as Sarkozy repeats his message of victimhood and resilience, hoping it will resonate with voters and supporters alike.
“The end of the story remains to be written,” Sarkozy posted on social media, hinting at his ongoing ambitions. The memoir, with its blend of self-pity, bravado, and calculated messaging, is both a personal testament and a political gambit—a bid to shape his legacy and perhaps, once again, the future of France.
