I was there when 86% of the French electorate voted decisively for change. Imagine if 86% of the American electorate had voted in 2000 or 2004.

Nicolas Sarkozy rings in a new political era for France.  Outspoken and controversial, Sarkozy now takes his position on the world stage.  But who is this man?  And what will his presidency means for America?  For the first time in English, Sarkozy puts forth his agenda for France and the world in his best-selling memoir, TESTIMONY: France in the Twenty-First Century.           

Sarkozy analyzes the difficulties facing France—social tensions, inadequate education, high unemployment. But far from drawing fatalistic conclusions, he demonstrates that France does not suffer from an identity crisis but from a crisis of political debate.

He accuses French political figures, sometimes harshly, of having deprived the public of their own say in government, leading to pervasive suspicion of elites, the state, and proper governance.

This book is a testimony to how Nicolas Sarkozy has evolved over the past twenty years as the only French political figure across the entire spectrum to broaden public debate, to confront idées reçues, to seek a new direction for France—in short to re-empower the French in their own political deliberations.

In TESTIMONY, for which he has drawn fire, Sarkozy issues a wake-up call to his people and the world, setting forth his iconoclastic views on such hot-button issues as international relations vis-à-vis the United States, the Arab world, and Africa; globalization; cultural chauvinism; immigration; the welfare state; education; and law and order.

In my opinion his selection of America as the site of his August vacation signaled his understanding of the importance of a good relationship with America and even his visit to Kennebunkport, although unpopular in France, shows respect for the office of the President and the long and friendly tradition between the two republics.

As Roger Cohen said in the New York Times: To grasp the enormity of all this, imagine President Bush abandoning Texan brush for a three-week sojourn in St.-Jean –Cap Ferrat.”

Terrance Gelenter

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