Coordinates: 48°50′1.9″N 2°15′38.3″E / 48.833861°N 2.260639°E / 48.833861; 2.260639

TF1 is a national French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. It's also considered as the most viewed television channel in Europe (since the British television ITV1 had lost this title). Flagship series include CSI, The Voice and House M.D.

TF1 originally stood for Télévision Française 1 (French Television 1). Since its privatisation in 1987, the abbreviation is no longer expanded, so as to avoid confusion with the government-owned channel France Télévisions^{[citation needed]}.

The channel is part of the TF1 Group of mass media companies, which also includes the news channel LCI and Eurosport, the largest European sports network. Together with France Télévisions, TF1 co-managed the international French news channel France 24 but has since sold its share. TF1 had possessed the satellite-network TPS, which have been sold to the Canal + Group.

TF1 is a supporter of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) initiative (a consortium of broadcasting and Internet industry companies including SES, OpenTV and Institut für Rundfunktechnik) that is promoting and establishing an open European standard for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface.

Programs[link]

• French TV Shows now airing:
  • Julie Lescaut
  • Diane, femme flic
  • Alice Nevers, le juge est une femme
• These French TV Shows were shown on TF1 : Les toqués, Rose et Val, Soeur Thérèse.com, Mes amis, mes amours, mes emmerdes..., Commissaire Cordier, R.I.S Police scientifique, Les Cordier, juge et flic ; Extrême limite ; La Vie devant nous ; Joséphine ange gardien.
• American TV Shows now airing (in French):
  • Surface (Surface)
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (New York unité spéciale)
  • Walker, Texas Ranger (Walker, Texas ranger)
  • Life (Life)
  • Monk (Monk)
  • CSI: NY (Les experts : Manhattan)
  • CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Les experts)
  • Wild Card (Méthode Zoé)
  • The Young and the Restless (Les feux de l'amour)
  • Crossing Jordan (Preuve à l'appui)
  • House (Dr House)
  • Grey's Anatomy (Grey's Anatomy)
  • Close to Home (Close to Home)
  • The Mentalist (Mentalist)
  • Law & Order: Criminal Intent (New York section criminelle)
  • CSI: Miami (Les experts : Miami)
  • Brothers & Sisters (Brothers & Sisters)
  • Dirty Sexy Money (Dirty Sexy Money)
• These American TV Shows were shown on TF1: Ghost Whisperer (Ghost whisperer), 7th Heaven (7 à la maison), Strong Medicine (La vie avant tout), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Terminator : les chroniques de Sarah Connor), Law & Order (New York police judiciaire), Bionic Woman (Bionic woman), One Tree Hill (Les frères Scott), Private Practice (Private practice), Las Vegas ; Will & Grace ; What About Brian ; Yes, Dear (Oui chérie!) ; Joan of Arcadia (Le monde de Joan) ; American Dreams (Mes plus belles années); Dawson's Creek (Dawson) ; Felicity ; Baywatch (Alerte à Malibu) ; Angel ; Beverly Hills, 90210 (Beverly Hills) ; Melrose Place ; Silk Stalkings (Les dessous de Palm Beach) ; MacGyver ; Mad About You (Dingue de toi) ; Providence ; Strong Medicine (La vie avant tout) ; Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (Hercule) ; Xena: Warrior Princess (Xena, la guerrière) ; The Invisible Man (L'homme invisible) ; Sunset Beach ; Law & Order: Trial by Jury (New York cour de justice) ; Threat Matrix (Agence Matrix) ; L.A. Dragnet (Dragnet) ; Karen Sisco ; North Shore (North Shore: hôtel du Pacifique) ; Point Pleasant (Point Pleasant, entre le bien et le mal) ; Conviction ; Tarzan (Jane et Tarzan) ; The Mountain (La famille Carver) ; Cover Me: Based on the True Life of an FBI Family (FBI family) ; General Hospital (Alliances & trahisons) ; Passions ; One Life to Live (On ne vit qu'une fois) ; All My Children (La force du destin) ; Guiding Light (Haine et passions) ; Search for Tomorrow (C'est déjà demain) ; Parker Lewis Can't Lose (Parker Lewis ne perd jamais) ; Hunter (Rick Hunter) ; Knight Rider (K 2000) ; Hart to Hart (Pour l'amour du risque) ; Columbo ; Starsky and Hutch (Starsky et Hutch) ; Eight is Enough (Huit, ça suffit !) ; Knots Landing (Côte Ouest) ; Dallas; Santa Barbara ; The A-Team (Agence tous risques) ; Diff'rent Strokes (Arnold et Willy) ; Lost (Lost).
• These Reality Shows were shown on TF1: Survivor (Koh-Lanta), The Voice (The voice : la plus belle voix), Fear Factor (French version) ; Je suis une célébrité, sortez-moi de là! (French "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!") ; Greg le Millionaire (French "Joe Millionaire") ; Marjolaine et les Millionnaires ; Nice People (French Big Brother) ; 1ère Compagnie (French "Celebrity Bootcamp")  ; Mon Incroyable Fiancé (French "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé") ; Queer : Cinq Experts dans le Vent (French "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy") and Le Royaume (French "The Riket").
• Game Shows now airing:
  • Les 12 coups de Midi
  • The Dating Game (Tournez Manège !)
  • Le Juste Prix (The Price is Right)
  • La Roue de la Fortune (Wheel of Fortune)

• Famous iconic programs:
  • L'Île aux Enfants
  • 1, rue Sésame (French Sesame Street)
  • Club Dorothée (With Dragon Ball Z, Knights of the Zodiac, Sailor Moon and other shows). Replaced with TFOU TV.

• Animated television series: Pokémon ; Dora the Explorer ; Sonic X, among others

In 2005, TF1 launched TF1Vision, a video on demand service.

Share[link]

From 1983 to 1986, TF1 was second behind Antenne 2.

** Minimum

Criticism[link]

Some commentators accuse TF1 of being an excessively populist, commercialised channel. There is a clear emphasis on "light" entertainment programmes over more serious content, and the channel's success is sometimes seen as being founded on the ménagères de moins de 50 ans (housewives under 50) audience segment. Certainly, a large proportion of the schedule consists of gameshows, sensational documentaries and dubbed versions of TV series. The channel's news service is perceived as consisting of more celebrity news and human-interest stories than its public-sector competitors.

On 16 April 2009, the employee responsible for the "Web innovation" department was fired for criticizing the Hadopi law in a private email (on 19 February) sent to a Member of Parliament. The management of TF1 was notified about the e-mail by the Ministry for Culture and Communication, whom Ministry Christine Albanel is also one the authors of the Hadopi law.^[1][2][3]

In 2004 Patrick Le Lay, CEO of TF1 made the following statement about the channel's aims:

"There are many ways to speak about TV, but in a business perspective, let's be realistic: at the basis, TF1's job is helping Coca-Cola, for example, to sell its product. What we sell to Coca-Cola is available human brain time. Nothing is more difficult than obtaining this availability. This is where permanent change is located. We must always look out for popular programs, follow trends, surf on tendencies, in a context in which information is speeding up, getting manifold and trivialized." ^[4]

Critics of TF1 also contend that its news coverage is slanted towards supporting right-wing politicians – they were in particular accused of supporting Édouard Balladur in the 1995 presidential elections, and of overstating crime during the 2002 electoral campaign to tilt the balance in favour of former French president Jacques Chirac, who campaigned on a law and order platform.

Key figures within TF1 are close friends to some of the most powerful politicians in France, and the relationship between Bouygues and the public-sector contracting system often raises suspicions. Nicolas Sarkozy (President of the French Republic from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012) is a frequent guest of the channel, and is seen as being given an easier ride than on other networks. Immigration and violence are arguably conflated in the channel's news programmes. In addition, it is occasionally alleged that news reports from TF1 tend to ignore issues yielding a bad light on their parent group (Bouygues), while stressing the problems of competitors (such as VINCI).

Such criticism is heavy in the satirical show Les Guignols de l'info, broadcast on rival private network Canal Plus. However, TF1 now competes in this category with M6, which was initially a generalist channel focusing on musical programmes, but now has programming more resembling TF1 (notably, reality shows that TF1 started running just after M6 introduced them).

See also[link]

• List of television stations in France

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Site (French)

v t e Television in France Terrestrial digital (free) TF1 France 2 France 3 Canal+ France 5 M6 Arte Direct 8 W9 TMC NT1 NRJ 12 La Chaîne parlementaire France 4 BFM TV I>Télé Direct Star Gulli France Ô Terrestrial digital (pay) TPS Star Paris Première Canal+ Sport Canal+ Cinéma CFoot Planète+ TF6 LCI Eurosport Other free TV5MONDE France 24 EuroNews (France) Guysen TV (France) Équidia Téva L'Équipe TV M6 Music Hits M6 Boutique Liberty TV Tropik TV Fashion TV Art Channel KTO Demain! The Walt Disney Company Disney Channel Disney Junior Disney Cinemagic Disney XD Other (pay) MCM Mezzo 13ème Rue Planète+ Jimmy RTL9 Comédie+ XXL Canal J Orange Sport AB1 OM TV Série Club Ciné+ Premier Ciné+ Frisson Media holding companies France Télévisions TF1 Group Métropole Télévision Canal+ Group Lagardère Active AB Groupe

Claire Chazal in 2007

Claire Chazal in 2006

Claire Chazal (pronounced: [klɛːʁ ʃazal]) (born December 1, 1956 at Thiers in the Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne) is a French journalist, romance writer, and director of news at a national television station, TF1.

She presents the news at 8pm in alternation with Gilles Bouleau; Julien Arnaud substitutes for her when she is absent.

She also presents Je/nous de Claire a talk-show on the gay television channel Pink TV that she helped start in 2004. (The title of this show puns on Le Genou de Claire, a French film known in English as Claire's Knee.) Chazal obtained an HEC School of Management diploma.

Sources[link]

• Profile at imédias website (French)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Claire Chazal

• Claire Chazal at the Internet Movie Database

This French biographical article related to television is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Nicolas Sarkozy
President of France
In office 16 May 2007 – 15 May 2012
Prime Minister	François Fillon
Preceded by	Jacques Chirac
Succeeded by	François Hollande
Co-Prince of Andorra
In office 16 May 2007 – 15 May 2012 Served with Joan Enric Vives Sicília
Prime Minister	Albert Pintat Jaume Bartumeu Pere López Agràs (Acting) Antoni Martí
Representative	Philippe Massoni Emmanuelle Mignon Christian Frémont
Preceded by	Jacques Chirac
Succeeded by	François Hollande
Minister of the Interior
In office 2 June 2005 – 26 March 2007
Prime Minister	Dominique de Villepin
Preceded by	Dominique de Villepin
Succeeded by	François Baroin
In office 7 May 2002 – 30 March 2004
Prime Minister	Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Preceded by	Daniel Vaillant
Succeeded by	Dominique de Villepin
President of the Union for a Popular Movement
In office 28 November 2004 – 14 May 2007
Vice President	Jean-Claude Gaudin
Preceded by	Jean-Claude Gaudin (Acting)
Succeeded by	Jean-Claude Gaudin (Acting)
President of the General Council of Hauts-de-Seine
In office 1 April 2004 – 14 May 2007
Preceded by	Charles Pasqua
Succeeded by	Patrick Devedjian
Minister of Finance
In office 31 March 2004 – 29 November 2004
Prime Minister	Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Preceded by	Francis Mer
Succeeded by	Hervé Gaymard
Minister of the Budget
In office 30 March 1993 – 11 May 1995
Prime Minister	Édouard Balladur
Preceded by	Michel Charasse
Succeeded by	François d'Aubert
Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine
In office 14 April 1983 – 7 May 2002
Preceded by	Achille Peretti
Succeeded by	Louis-Charles Bary
Personal details
Born	(1955-01-28) 28 January 1955 (age 57) Paris, France
Political party	Rally for the Republic (Before 2002) Union for a Popular Movement (2002–present)
Spouse(s)	Marie-Dominique Culioli (1982–1996) Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz (1996–2007) Carla Bruni (2008–present)
Children	Pierre (by Culioli) Jean (by Culioli) Louis (by Ciganer-Albéniz) Giulia (by Bruni)
Alma mater	Paris West University Nanterre La Défense Institute of Political Studies, Paris
Signature
Website	Official website

Nicolas Sarkozy (pronounced [ni.kɔ.la saʁ.kɔ.zi] ( listen), born Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa; 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as the 23rd President of the French Republic from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012.

Before his presidency, he was leader of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Under Jacques Chirac's presidency he served as Minister of the Interior in Jean-Pierre Raffarin's (UMP) first two governments (from May 2002 to March 2004), then was appointed Minister of Finances in Raffarin's last government (March 2004 to May 2005) and again Minister of the Interior in Dominique de Villepin's government (2005–2007).

Sarkozy was also president of the General council of the Hauts-de-Seine department from 2004 to 2007 and mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of France from 1983 to 2002. He was Minister of the Budget in the government of Édouard Balladur (RPR, predecessor of the UMP) during François Mitterrand's last term.

In foreign affairs, he promised a strengthening of the entente cordiale with the United Kingdom^[1] and closer cooperation with the United States.^[2] During his term, he faced the late-2000s financial crisis (followed by the recession and the debt crisis caused by it) and the Arab Spring (especially in Tunisia, Libya, and Syria). He also married Italian-French singer-songwriter Carla Bruni on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris.

On 6 May 2012, Sarkozy was defeated in the 2012 election by Socialist François Hollande by a margin of 3.2 percent, or 1,139,983 votes.^[3] After leaving the office, Sarkozy retired from political life.^[4] As a former president, Sarkozy is entitled to de jure membership in the Constitutional Council.

Personal life[link]

Family background[link]

Sarkozy is the son of Pál István Ernő Sárközy de Nagy-Bócsa^[5] (Hungarian: nagybócsai Sárközy Pál [nɒɟ͡ʝboːt͡ʃɒi ʃaːrkøzi paːl] ( listen); in some sources Nagy-Bócsay Sárközy Pál István Ernő),^[6] a Hungarian aristocrat, and Andrée Jeanne "Dadu" Mallah (b. Paris, 12 October 1925), whose Greek Jewish father converted to Catholicism to marry her French Catholic mother.^[7][8] They were married in the Saint-François-de-Sales church, 17th arrondissement of Paris, on 8 February 1950 and divorced in 1959.^[9]

Early life[link]

During Sarkozy's childhood, his father founded his own advertising agency and became wealthy. The family lived in a mansion owned by Sarkozy's maternal grandfather, Benedict Mallah, in the 17th Arrondissement of Paris. The family later moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of the Île-de-France région immediately west of the 17th Arrondissement just outside of Paris. According to Sarkozy, his staunchly Gaullist grandfather was more of an influence on him than his father, whom he rarely saw. Sarkozy was, accordingly, raised Catholic.^[7]

Sarkozy said that being abandoned by his father shaped much of who he is today. He also has said that, in his early years, he felt inferior in relation to his wealthier and taller classmates.^[10] "What made me who I am now is the sum of all the humiliations suffered during childhood", he said later.^[10]

Education[link]

Sarkozy was enrolled in the Lycée Chaptal, a well regarded public middle and high school in Paris's 8th arrondissement, where he failed his sixième. His family then sent him to the Cours Saint-Louis de Monceau, a private Catholic school in the 17th arrondissement, where he was reportedly a mediocre student,^[11] but where he nonetheless obtained his baccalauréat in 1973. He enrolled at the Université Paris X Nanterre, where he graduated with an MA in Private law, and later with a DEA degree in Business law. Paris X Nanterre had been the starting place for the May '68 student movement and was still a stronghold of leftist students. Described as a quiet student, Sarkozy soon joined the right-wing student organization, in which he was very active. He completed his military service as a part time Air Force cleaner.^[12] After graduating, he entered the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, better known as Sciences Po, (1979–1981) but failed to graduate^[13] due to an insufficient command of the English language.^[14] After passing the bar, he became a lawyer specializing in business and family law,^[14] and was one of Silvio Berlusconi's top French advocates.^[15][16][17]

Marriages[link]

Marie-Dominique Culioli[link]

Sarkozy married his first wife, Marie-Dominique Culioli, on 23 September 1982; her father was a pharmacist from Vico (a village north of Ajaccio, Corsica), her uncle was Achille Peretti, the mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine from 1947-1983 and Sarkozy's political mentor. They had two sons, Pierre (born in 1985), now a hip-hop producer,^[18] and Jean (born in 1986) now a local politician in the city of Neuilly-sur-Seine where Sarkozy started his own political career. Sarkozy's best man was the prominent right-wing politician Charles Pasqua, later to become a political opponent.^[19] Sarkozy divorced Culioli in 1996, after they had been separated for several years.

Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz[link]

As mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Sarkozy met former fashion model and public relations executive Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz (great-granddaughter of composer Isaac Albéniz and daughter of a Moldovan father), when he officiated at her wedding^[20] to television host Jacques Martin. In 1988, she left her husband for Sarkozy, and divorced Martin one year later. Sarkozy married her in October 1996, with witnesses Martin Bouygues and Bernard Arnault.^[21] They have one son, Louis, born 23 April 1997.

Between 2002 and 2005, the couple often appeared together on public occasions, with Cécilia Sarkozy acting as the chief aide for her husband.^[22] On 25 May 2005, however, the Swiss newspaper Le Matin revealed that she had left Sarkozy for French-Moroccan national Richard Attias, head of Publicis in New York.^[23] There were other accusations of a private nature in Le Matin, which led to Sarkozy suing the paper.^[24] In the meantime, he was said to have had an affair with a journalist of Le Figaro, Anne Fulda.^[25]

Sarkozy and Cécilia ultimately divorced on 15 October 2007, soon after his election as President.^[26]

Carla Bruni[link]

President Barack Obama is greeted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni at the G8 Summit dinner in Deauville, France, 26 May 2011.

Less than a month after separating from Cécilia, Sarkozy met Italian-born singer Carla Bruni at a dinner party, and soon entered a relationship with her.^[27] They married on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris.^[28]

The couple has a daughter, Giulia, born on 19 October 2011.^[29] It is the first time a French president has had a child while in office.^[30]

Personal wealth[link]

Sarkozy declared to the Constitutional Council a net worth of €2 million, most of the assets being in the form of life insurance policies.^[31] As the French President, one of his first actions was to give himself a pay raise: his yearly salary went from €101,000 to €240,000 (to match his European/French peers).^[32] He is also entitled to a mayoral pension as a former mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Member of National Assembly[link]

Sarkozy is recognised by both the right and left's French parties as a skilled politician and striking orator.^[33] His supporters within France emphasize his charisma, political innovation and willingness to "make a dramatic break" amid mounting disaffection against "politics as usual". Overall, he is considered more pro-United States and pro-Israeli than most French politicians.

Since November 2004, Sarkozy has been president of the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), France's major right-wing political party, and he was Minister of the Interior in the government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, with the honorific title of Minister of State, making him effectively the number three official in the French State after President Jacques Chirac and Villepin. His ministerial responsibilities included law enforcement and working to co-ordinate relationships between the national and local governments, as well as Minister of Worship (in this role he created the CFCM, French Council of Muslim Faith). Previously, he was a deputy to the French National Assembly. He was forced to resign this position in order to accept his ministerial appointment. He previously also held several ministerial posts, including Finance Minister.

In government[link]

Sarkozy's political career began when he was 23, when he became a city councillor in Neuilly-sur-Seine. A member of the Neo-Gaullist party RPR, he went on to be elected mayor of that town, after the death of the incumbent mayor Achille Peretti. Sarkozy had been close to Peretti, as his mother was Peretti's secretary. The senior RPR politician at the time, Charles Pasqua, wanted to become mayor, and asked Sarkozy to organize his campaign. Instead Sarkozy profited from Pasqua's short illness to propel himself into the office of mayor.^[34] He was the youngest mayor of any town in France with a population of over 50,000. He served from 1983 to 2002. In 1988, he became a deputy in the National Assembly.

In 1993, Sarkozy was in the national news for personally negotiating with the "Human Bomb", a man who had taken small children hostage in a kindergarten in Neuilly.^[35] The "Human Bomb" was killed after two days of talks by policemen of the RAID, who entered the school stealthily while the attacker was resting.

At the same time, from 1993 to 1995, he was Minister for the Budget and spokesman for the executive in the cabinet of Prime Minister Édouard Balladur. Throughout most of his early career, Sarkozy had been seen as a protégé of Jacques Chirac. During his tenure, he increased France's public debt more than any other French Budget Minister, by the equivalent of €200 billion (USD260 billion) (FY 1994–1996). The first two budgets he submitted to the parliament (budgets for FY1994 and FY1995) assumed a yearly budget deficit equivalent to six percent of GDP.^[36] According to the Maastricht Treaty, the French yearly budget deficit may not exceed three percent of France's GDP.

In 1995, he spurned Chirac and backed Édouard Balladur for President of France. After Chirac won the election, Sarkozy lost his position as Minister for the Budget, and found himself outside the circles of power.

However, he returned after the right-wing defeat at the 1997 parliamentary election, as the number two candidate of the RPR. When the party leader Philippe Séguin resigned, in 1999, he took the leadership of the Neo-Gaullist party. But it obtained its worst result at the 1999 European Parliament election, winning 12.7% of the votes, less than the dissident Rally for France of Charles Pasqua. Sarkozy lost the RPR leadership.

Nicolas Sarkozy speaking at the congress of his party, 28 November 2004

In 2002, however, after his re-election as President of the French Republic (see French presidential election, 2002), Chirac appointed Sarkozy as French Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, despite Sarkozy's support of Edouard Balladur for French President in 1995.^[37] Following Chirac's 14 July keynote speech on road safety, Sarkozy as interior minister pushed through new legislation leading to the mass purchase of speed cameras and a campaign to increase the awareness of dangers on the roads.

In the cabinet reshuffle of 30 April 2004, Sarkozy became Finance Minister. Tensions continued to build between Sarkozy and Chirac and within the UMP party, as Sarkozy's intentions of becoming head of the party after the resignation of Alain Juppé became clear.

In party elections of 10 November 2004, Sarkozy became leader of the UMP with 85% of the vote. In accordance with an agreement with Chirac, he resigned as Finance Minister. Sarkozy's ascent was marked by the division of UMP between sarkozystes, such as Sarkozy's "first lieutenant", Brice Hortefeux, and Chirac loyalists, such as Jean-Louis Debré.

Sarkozy was made Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by President Chirac in February 2005. He was re-elected on 13 March 2005 to the National Assembly (as required by the constitution,^[38] he had to resign as a deputy when he became minister in 2002).

On 31 May 2005 the main French news radio station France Info reported a rumour that Sarkozy was to be reappointed Minister of the Interior in the government of Dominique de Villepin without resigning from the UMP leadership. This was confirmed on 2 June 2005, when the members of the government were officially announced.

First term as Minister of the Interior[link]

Towards the end of his first term as Minister of the Interior, in 2004, Sarkozy was the most divisive conservative politician in France, according to polls conducted at the beginning of 2004.

Sarkozy has sought to ease the sometimes tense relationships between the general French population and the Muslim community. Unlike the Catholic Church in France with their official leaders or Protestants with their umbrella organisations, the French Muslim community had a lack of structure with no group that could legitimately deal with the French government on their behalf. Sarkozy supported the foundation in May 2003 of the private non-profit Conseil français du culte musulman ("French Council of the Muslim Faith"), an organisation meant to be representative of French Muslims.^[39] In addition, Sarkozy has suggested amending the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State, mostly in order to be able to finance mosques and other Muslim institutions with public funds^[40] so that they are less reliant on money from outside of France. It was not followed by any concrete measure.

Minister of Finance[link]

During his short appointment as Minister of Finance, Sarkozy was responsible for introducing a number of policies. The degree to which this reflected libéralisme (a hands-off approach to running the economy) or more traditional French state dirigisme (intervention) is controversial. He resigned the day following his election as president of the UMP.

• In September 2004, Sarkozy oversaw the reduction of the government ownership stake in France Télécom from 50.4 percent to 41 percent.^[41]
• Sarkozy backed a partial nationalisation of the large engineering company Alstom decided by his predecessor when the company was exposed to bankruptcy in 2003.^[42]
• In June 2004, Sarkozy reached an agreement with the major retail chains in France to concertedly lower prices on household goods by an average of two percent; the success of this measure is disputed, with studies suggesting that the decrease was close to one percent in September.^[43]
• Taxes: Sarkozy avoided taking a position on the ISF (solidarity tax on wealth). This is considered an ideological symbol by many on the left and right. Some in the business world and on the liberal right, such as Alain Madelin, wanted it abolished. For Sarkozy, that would have risked being categorised by the left as a gift to the richest classes of society at a time of economic difficulties.^[44]

Villepin government[link]

Second term as Minister of the Interior[link]

Sarkozy as Minister of the Interior with then U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, after their bilateral meeting in Washington, D.C., 12 September 2006

During his second term at the Ministry of the Interior, Sarkozy was initially more discreet about his ministerial activities: instead of focusing on his own topic of law and order, many of his declarations addressed wider issues, since he was expressing his opinions as head of the UMP party.

However, the civil unrest in autumn 2005 put law enforcement in the spotlight again. Sarkozy was accused of having provoked the unrest by calling young delinquents from housing projects "rabble" ("racaille") in Argenteuil near Paris, and controversially suggested cleansing the minority suburbs with a Kärcher. After the accidental death of two youths, which sparked the riots, Sarkozy first blamed it on "hoodlums" and gangsters. These remarks were sharply criticised by many on the left wing and by a member of his own government, Delegate Minister for Equal Opportunities Azouz Begag.^[45]

After the rioting, he made a number of announcements on future policy: selection of immigrants, greater tracking of immigrants, and a reform on the 1945 ordinance government justice measures for young delinquents.

UMP leader[link]