Testimony: France in the Twenty-first Century

He 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 idees recues,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-a-vis the United States, the Arab world, and Africa; globalization; cultural chauvinism; immigration; the welfare state; education; and law and order.

Extraordinary for its candor regarding Sarkozy's political as well as personal life, Testimonygives us an unsparing critique of contemporary French society and its leaders even as it champions a sharp break with the past. Sarkozy's is a brave, new vision for France as it engages the world of the twenty-first century.