Is Sarkozy the new Napoleon?

By Hugh Schofield Paris

They are two small men in a hurry, who each believes in his personal destiny to drag France out of chaos and decline.

Is Sarkozy "Bonaparte in a suit"?

Both are outsiders ill-at-ease among the Paris elite; they are control-freaks who interfere in every corner of government; they are obsessed by image and see the media as a vital tool of power.

One way or another, they both dream of taking the reins of Europe.

Comparisons have been made before between Napoleon Bonaparte and his 26th successor as French head of state. But now they have been given the official imprimatur of the country's leading political commentator.

In a new book, called La Marche Consulaire (The Consular March), Alain Duhamel sets out the case for seeing Nicolas Sarkozy as a 21st Century incarnation of the most influential Frenchman of modern times - or as he puts it, "Bonaparte in a suit".

"Both men intend to leave behind them a France which is no longer what it was. They see themselves as the rescuers of a great but weakened nation," Mr Duhamel writes.

It's in Sarkozy's bearing that you see the characteristics of his predecessor: the speed at which he walks; the nervous, jerky gestures; the peremptory tone Jean TulardNapoleonic historian

He sees other similarities too.

Each likes ostentation and has a frank respect for money.

They adore women - though their dependence on beautiful consorts exposes a disarming psychological frailty.

Above all, the two men are hated and admired in equal measure.

Many believe they are providential heroes and overlook their flaws as the inevitable concomitants of reforming genius.

But others see them as anti-democrats whose legacy is the destruction of freedom.

'Fits of anger'

For Mr Duhamel, the point of similarity is with the Corsican general who took over as First Consul in 1800, before embarking on a vast programme of domestic reforms, rather than with the "brutal, irresistible, glorious" Emperor who was crowned four years later.

Back then, France was mired in post-Revolutionary instability, just as in recent times it has been wracked by "crisis, anxiety and disenchantment".

LIVES COMPARED Height: Bonaparte and Sarkozy both 168cm (5'6") Origin: Bonaparte's family from Corsica; Sarkozy half Hungarian and a quarter Greek Jewish Partners: Napoleon married Josephine 1796-1810, they had no children; then Marie-Louise, Archduchess of Austria, who bore him a son. He had several mistresses and at least two illegitimate children. Sarkozy married Marie-Dominique Culioli 1982-96 (two sons), Cecilia Cigner-Albeniz 1996-2007 (one son); and Carla Bruni in 2007

In both instances, the country is in search of a "new social model