“In prison, there is nothing to see, and nothing to do. I forget silence, which doesn’t exist at La Santé, where there is much to hear. The noise is, unfortunately, constant there. But just like in the desert, your inner life is strengthened in prison.”
This is how France’s former leader Nicolas Sarkozy – sent to five years in prison in October for seeking to acquire financing from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi for his 2007 presidential campaign – depicts his prison experience in his 13th book "Le Journal d’Un Prisonnier" (The Diary of a Prisoner) due in book stores December 10.
Read moreHow former French president Sarkozy allegedly received millions from Libya's Gaddafi
The book deal with one of France’s most prestigious publishers, Fayard – owned by far-right tycoon Vincent Bolloré – was announced just days after he walked out of the high-security prison in central Paris on November 10 after being granted conditional release pending his March 16, 2026 appeals trial.
Although 70-year-old Sarkozy, who is the first French post-war leader to have been put behind bars, had announced ahead of his incarceration that he planned to write a book in jail, it is unclear whether the publishing deal was already in the works, and how much the contract for his 216-page account is actually worth.
Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, a strategic communications expert who also teaches the subject at elite French university Sciences Po, said Sarkozy’s upcoming book release is 100 percent strategy.
“It’s part of his communications playbook, which – right from the start – has been extremely aggressive: a very strong public and media-focused defence that is being built around a narrative of injustice, judicial error and revenge – just like the Count of Monte Cristo,” he said, referring to Dumas’ literary hero who, after years of wrongful imprisonment, reinvents himself to finally avenge those who once betrayed him.
There are, however, quite a few things that separate Sarkozy from the count.
For one, Dumas’ protagonist spent 14 years in prison under horrifying conditions; Sarkozy served 20 days in a private cell, with his own toilet, shower and cooking facilities. For security reasons, he also had two bodyguards living in the cell next to his to keep a constant watch over him.
The Guardian joked that Sarkozy’s three-week stint at La Santé was so short that “it is not certain whether he had time to read and critique the three books he took into prison with him”.
Secondly, the Count of Monte Cristo maintained his innocence throughout his court and prison ordeals. Sarkozy has already been convicted in a first instance in the Gaddafi case. So although he might be enjoying some freedom right now, it is only because his conditional release comes on the back of an appeal.
Fresh headache
On Wednesday, Sarkozy’s legal battles reached a new low after France’s top court upheld another conviction related to the illegal financing of his 2012 re-election campaign in the so-called Bygmalion case. In 2024, a lower court sentenced him to one year in prison over that.
In December last year, the former president reached the end of his legal recourse in a third case involving his attempts to obtain favours from a judge, and was sentenced to electronic monitoring. The electronic bracelet was removed in May.
Moreau Chevrolet said there are mainly two things that Sarkozy hopes to achieve with his prison diary.
“First off, to repair the public opinion of him. He’s working on his image and his legacy. Secondly, he’s trying to mount a media defence against the judges,” he said, noting that “a book gives you access to the media – TV studios, interviews – and provides material for your supporters to work with and to keep them mobilised”.
But surely readers will learn something from this book? “Probably not much,” the expert said, noting “political books are rarely substantial”.
Although many Sarkozy supporters are likely to buy it when it hits the stores – “there’s an element of voyeurism: the desire to enter his intimate world” – he does not expect the diary to become a best-seller.
“The news is saturated by events right now: the war in Ukraine, the French budget, and many other crises. So it’s very difficult for this story to break through.”
Will he mention the yogurt?
Still, Moreau Chevrolet said it will likely benefit Sarkozy in more ways than one.
“It closes the first chapter of his legal battles, and [by telling the story in his own words] he emerges symbolically on top.”
But perhaps more importantly, it gives him a chance to defend his personal image and legacy.
“This is the number-one obsession of every politician, especially former presidents. There’s also the family dimension: you defend your name the same way you defend an inheritance.”
There are still few details available of what the prison diary will actually contain, but speculations are already running high.
The Guardian’s Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafis, for example, cited a report that suggested that Sarkozy refused to eat anything but yogurt while in prison.
“It is uncertain whether Sarkozy will write about what he ate,” she mused.
FRANCE 24 has requested a pre-release copy of the book from the publishing house, but has not yet received a reply.
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