His weapons Organization hygiene of life

I am crazy! "The term is as a leitmotif in the mouth of Eric Besson. Meet at the center of a swirl of controversy does not appear to interfere with the Minister of Immigration and national identity, architect of highly contested debate on "national identity" (see also page 2). On the contrary even, it seems to make a kind of jubilation. "When I am convinced of something, the fact whether it likes or not a few professionals of indignation, I me in crazy." "I am fun of their eyes," it strikes. There are a few reasons to believe. Because, since its sharp break with Ségolène Royal in the open countryside presidential, followed by an express buy Nicolas Sarkozy, former national Secretary of the Socialist Party has shown that it is able to escape the most sacred deemed rules. The episode has intervened as a catharsis to reveal the "real" Besson. "Until then, it was considered rather smooth and bland." When he left the campaign of Ségolène Royal, it was in the register of disappointment. "But the manner in which the candidate and his supporters have treated him radicalized it" analysis Gilles Finchelstein, the Director-General of the Jean-Jaurès Foundation.

From mixed cultures

If, on his former friends, the image of the "treacherous" him sticks to skin, the banned feels today in a position of strength. "They know that I know them well, me not impressed that I am not their low capacity for work." "They have reason to fear me," he says. These provocations towards those who have sought to humiliate are indicative of the high idea he has of himself. Surely one of the keys to the character. "This is a great proud."said his ex-wife, Sylvie Brunel, who shared his life for thirty years prior to unburden himself in a book entitled "Manual of guerrilla to the use of women" (1). Such susceptibility also reveals the Marrakech native Mediterranean fiber. Despite his permanent care to control on devine impulsivity incumbent, him which prides itself on never fear "the baston.

Years lived across the Mediterranean well illuminate other things in this immigrant of the Interior. A distance geographically, to feed a vision idealized motherland, was added an intimate fracture: the premature loss of a father instructor in the army of the air, disappeared in an accident before even the birth of his son. "Having a dead father to the France, it soon stopped me," recognizes the Minister. Young Besson has also had to forge its identity in getting different origins of the two parts of his family. On the one hand, the Parisian intellectual bourgeoisie, on the other, of modest Lebanese immigrants. "One of my grandmothers was associate grammar, the other did not speak French." I am the result of the two, born of mixed cultures. Nobody will get me in this field. "I have never had a Word, a sigh, likely to lend to a criticism of the plan of racism", says the man who called her second daughter Marianne.

Disdain for conventions

These pathways out of the traced paths led the future public man to empower more than another of the yoke of conventions. "He dares to everything, because he has not internalized codes." "When he discovered the France, it it was regarded as a testing ground", analysis Sylvie Brunel. This disdain for standards, her ex-husband the showed him on the day of their marriage, by refusing to swear loyalty and leaving the wedding meal to immerse themselves in the retransmission of Grand Prix of formula 1. It also permeates his active life foreign to the usual canons. After his failure in the ENA and a passage in Renault to sell trucks in Africa and China, the fickle has tried an experience of "Challenges" press before moulting in headhunting and then to focus on issues of insertion to the Foundation and the Vivendi Foundation. Even his relatively late entry into politics seems to be a concurrence of circumstances. It is his wife that inhabitants of Donzère, the small town of Drôme where the family is established, came first offer to the conquest of the Town Hall.

And yet! Besson, detachment does not mean, both to be sure, dilettantism. It is even the contradiction first character. His ascent has been marked by a desire to succeed. His weapons: Organization, hygiene of life. The large bosseur which do not layer before 2-3 hours of the morning begins each day with a footing and maintains its shape while playing soccer on Friday with the team of Veterans of Donzère. Indifferent to the comfort and luxury, he does drink never alcohol. "A time where he worked at the newspaper, we spent our time to celebrate with champagne of good and bad news." "But he was the man who never smiled", remembers Patrick Falconer, the creator of "Challenges". Even today, when, in the lunchroom of Ministry, rue de Grenelle - where it uses the plates at the time where she occupied the premises - Ségolène Royal-controlled, it serves as the slices of roast accompanied by noodles, it swallows that the seconds. Believe the confidences of his ex-wife, the only departure from this asceticism is to seek its weaknesses for good sex.

In the wake of the powerful

This methodical ambition has an another constant: she always borrowed the wake of the powerful. "The Face Foundation, he seemed to have a true interest in issues of integration, but it seemed to particularly attracted by the composition of the Board of Directors, then chaired by Martine Aubry", creaks Thierry Mandon, Mayor PS of Ris-Orangis, which rubbed shoulders. The General delegate of the Vivendi Foundation lived then five years in the shadow of Jean-Marie Messier, at the height of its glory. At this yardstick, the entry into politics illuminates better. "In reality, he was thinking there for a long time, but his problem was that it did not anchor." He had first thought to register in a section in Paris or Barbizon, where his grandparents owned a House. "When it is launched at Donzère, he had already programmed the suite", reveals Sylvie Brunel. Rue de Solferino also, devotion to the head has been constant. "No one has worked more than me to the national Office.". "Officially I was responsible for economic issues, but in the end, François Hollande made me do everything on all subjects", says the former apparatchik.

The meeting with Nicolas Sarkozy, who looks like him both by his hyperactivity, self-worth and his contempt for the codes, registered as a logical. "I need to invest me with people who I trust." "I was wrong on François Hollande, not on the other", justified the person concerned, while rejecting the simple idea that it would have always been looking for a surrogate father. "That it does not tell me that the current President of the Republic is a father to his ministers!", grinding.

"An original vision."

Solitaire in any case seems to have found to right field that he needed to get out of its shell. The UMP, of which he became the number two, this beautiful war decision-making competence is appreciated. "When we created teams, many wanted to end up with him." He is responsible for all prospective debates. It has an original vision. "It's both a techno and a policy", welcomes Michel Bettan, Xavier Bertrand, Director of Office of the Secretary-General. Eric Besson is indeed now the leading role which his ego aspired. "It must be thoroughly what you do without thinking about the next step", he says. Difficult, however, to imagine him that it was not reflected in the next che mar. Without it, it is true, exclude from unexpected contre-pieds on the part of amateur football, with the avowed dream of presiding over a football club. One would think of idealism, if he did as soon as it supports any particular team. No matter the Jersey, provided that it wins.

(1) Sylvie Brunel, "Handbook for the use of women guerrilla", Grasset, 2009.

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