BARELY a year into his second presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy looked out from the steps of the Élysée and admitted defeat. The referendum had been lost. The European Union flag still fluttering behind him, the president said that he regretted that France, a founding member of the EU, would now have to leave it. Pollsters were flabbergasted. Mr Sarkozy put on a brave face. “Eternal France”, he said, trying to sound like de Gaulle, had endured far worse in its long and glorious history. Its best days lay ahead. And non, the president had no intention of resigning.
His optimism was unusual. Mr Sarkozy had won another spell in the Élysée by trafficking in fear (borrowing several ideas from Donald Trump’s almost-successful campaign for the White House). In the primary for France’s centre-right Republicans, held in November 2016, Mr Sarkozy had focused relentlessly on the country’s année de cauchemars (“year of nightmares”), blaming weak leaders and bumbling Eurocrats for failing to prevent a bloody series of terrorist attacks. In this febrile atmosphere Mr Sarkozy’s rival, the genteel Alain Juppé, didn’t stand…
