60 minutes rewind
when nicholas sarkozy france's new president visits the white house next week it'll symbolize
how much french american relations have improved since the war in iraq like most of the french
sarkozy opposes the war but he's a fan of almost everything else american from hollywood movies to
the american work ethic on issue after issue from iran to israel to the war on terrorism he sides
with u.s policy he is so pro-us the french call him sarco the american the son of an immigrant
from hungary nicholas sarkozy is a real departure from past french presidents he's prone to flashes
of quick temper and as of last week he's divorced he's young high energy and thoroughly intriguing
when nicholas sarkozy became president in may at 52 he waved goodbye to the old political order
and started his own
the inauguration was a dazzling beginning after a tough election in which sarkozy asked the french
people for a mandate for radical change and got it sarkozy showed off his family
happy with comparisons to the kennedys his glamorous wife cecilia a former model her
two daughters and his two sons from previous marriages and their own ten-year-old louie
sarkozy's affection for his wife was evident
the five months since then have been a whirlwind of made for tv appearances
fiery speeches a drop in at a mosque and meetings with a parade of world leaders
sarkozy is so omnipresent his countrymen have started calling him super sarco the energizer
president his style is something the french aren't used to plunging into crowds and glad-handing
when i first met him for a quick impromptu conversation on his presidential airplane
he was in a playful mood grabbing my notes which he said would put us on an equal footing
but he refused to wear a microphone which made the audio difficult they call you sako the american
what because i love america i want to be a friend of america but the name i am proud of his nickname
you like our music elvis presley of course this story will introduce you to the american people
what do you most want them to know about me
i want the americans to know that they can count on us
at the same time we want to be free to disagree u.s french relations have been sour for decades
but in 2003 disagreement over the war in iraq plunged them to a new low when then
president jacques sharack openly opposed the bush administration here in the u.s
all things french were denigrated their cars were smashed their wine was dumped their fries renamed
freedom fries it became very heated unpleasant at times jean david levite france's ambassador
to washington at the time and now sarkozy's national security advisor told us repairing the
u.s relationship is a top sarkozy priority he even mentioned it in his acceptance speech the night he
was elected president why did he go that far as to mention how much he likes america on that occasion
well because he thinks it's important he thinks that in his campaign he had to say to the french
people beware if you elect me i will implement this program and part of the program is to rebuild
strong good friendly relations with the u.s and i think he is succeeding magnificently
to underscore his message sarkozy went so far as to spend his first vacation as president of france
on a lake in new hampshire with his family the bushes nearby and kennebunkport invited
them over for hot dogs hamburgers and a little franco-american bonding but sarkozy's personal
life and his own temperament began to improve his wife cecilia created an embarrassing situation
when she snubbed the bushes by pulling out of the event at the last minute
back in new hampshire sarkozy had lost his temper at a photographer who had followed him out onto
the lake it turns out france's new president has a habit of letting his anger loose as we found out
as we were setting up for an interview at the elysee palace he started berating his press
secretary calling him an imbecile and worse for arranging an interview he clearly didn't
want to do on a busy day he is stupid but but sir this is how you should be this is this is
what the american people are going to say okay i don't have the time i have a big job to do i
have a schedule i'm very busy very busy sir i know you're angry no since i'm not angry
i'm gonna do my job don't worry okay all right all right um cannot be seen you have said
i have always had to fight throughout my life nothing ever came easily from me
nobody ever opened any doors i got used to that now is that the key to monsieur sarkozy
that's not the key just for me it's the key for anybody
you only get what you're prepared to struggle for i was from a middle class family i had no
connections nobody in my family had ever been in politics i didn't simply become
head of state by chance i became it because i wanted to and i paid the price for it you have
told the story of your father telling you that because you didn't have a french name
you were never going to make it in france you had to go to the united states to become successful
he was proven wrong but that's what he thought that a name like sarkozy was a handicap
that's the reason why i like the us you can be called schwarzenegger and be governor of
california you can be called madeleine albright and be secretary of state colin powell colin
powell or candy rice and succeed that's a free country that's a democratic country the country
that gives a chance to each and every one of its children the story will continue after this
determined to prove his hungarian father wrong sarkozy went into politics even at 23
he was delivering passionate speeches against socialist policies
five years later he was the mayor of a wealthy paris suburb he became a national figure in 1993
when he walked into a school where a suicide bomber was holding children hostage
he talked the man into releasing them one at a time and carried some of them out himself
the incident established sarkozy's reputation for courage and risk-taking as interior minister in
2005 he was in charge of the police during three weeks of rioting in immigrant neighborhoods all
around the country it was the worst unrest france had seen in decades it's interesting
that as the son of a foreigner sarkozy carried out a tough law and order campaign against immigrants
his controversial vow to get rid of the quote scum said may have helped him politically in
his campaign for president he ran on a platform of restoring order reforming the country's expensive
cradle to grave welfare system and promoting a new work ethic you have a 35-hour work week here
unfortunately unfortunately you're trying to expand it
we're going to change things we're going to change france we're going to modernize france here he
pumps up his coalition in the parliament encouraging work is our priority he says
it's because france is not working hard enough that our society is in bad shape
it's a message sarkozy takes on the road several times a week with trips like this one to dijon
here at a factory he preached his gospel of work more earn more and he also listened to people
tell him their problems at the end of his visit he worked the crowds revving
up support for undoing the law that forbids anyone in france from working more than 35
hours a week if you want to live holding your head up high you have to live from what you earn
not off public assistance people have tried to reform in the past they've also had strikes why
do you think you can overcome this when people haven't been able to in the past
i'm not afraid but what if the strikes paralyze the city or paralyze the country
if there are strikes i will tell the french people look it's up to you do we stop or do we go on
i say we go on while the transportation unions did go on strike last week after sarkozy said he was
going to cut their retirement benefits they shut down the trains and subways but commuters managed
without a lot of anger at sarkozy a sign the public supports his reforms for now
with his poll numbers still relatively high sarkozy's one big problem was his wife and
that his private life had become a public soap opera he had brought cecilia into his career
when he was interior minister she had an office next to his controlling his schedule and his
diet but they had a tempestuous relationship two years ago she left him for another man
they were photographed together in new york but sarkozy talked her into coming back to him after
the election he sent her on a diplomatic mission to libya where she helped negotiate the release of
five bulgarian nurses charged with murder but when the bulgarians gave the sarkozies a medal of honor
in early october cecilia was a no-show the day we interviewed him paris was buzzing with rumors
that she had left him again but ask him about it how dare you since we've been here it seems that
every day we're hearing another story about your wife what's going on if i had something to say
about cecilia i would certainly not do so here but there's a great mystery everybody's asking
even even your press secretary was asked at the briefing today
no comment it was quite right to make no comment and no comment thank you
sarkozy decided the interview was over on the phone
and off he went with the question about his wife left hanging two weeks later the elysee
announced the sarkozies were divorced just like that a first for a french president since then
no evidence at the end of cecilia is affecting his passion and drive in his job as it was growing up
every day for sarkozy is still a battle ask him a question and you could get a fight as we did
when we asked why he's on french television all the time the question is over exposure
and you why did you insist so much that i appeared on television
60 minutes with 60 minutes to be after me if i was of no interest
touche touche
gotcha