He might be taking up the time of the world with his relationship with Karla Bruni, however he does not forget that he is the grand son of a Greek. “Me the grandson of a Greek man” is the new biographical book dedicated to the Greek origins of the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, which was published this week and will be presented by the minister of foreign affairs Dora Bakoyannis on Wednesday. The authors of the study are Leon Nar, Georgios Anastasiadis and Christos Raptis, publishing house is “Kastaniotis”.

            The book sends us back to the beginning of the 20^th century in Thessaloniki and follows the destiny of Mordekai Malla, his wife Reina and his seven children one of which is Beniko, the grandfather of the French president Nicola Sarkozy. The authors claim that the family has Jewish origin and has arrived in Greece from the French region Provans. The ancestors of Mordekai were tracked down to Syria, Poland and the Baltic republics.

Beniko leaves Greece at the age of 14 and together with his mom he goes to study medicine in France. During the World War I he is a doctor in the French army. There he meets the beautiful nurse Adel and in order to get married with her he becomes catholic. The family has two daughters one of which is Andre who marries Paul Sarkozy, a Hungarian emigrant and father of the current French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Paul dies when his son is only 5 years old. Nicolas is practically raised by his grandfather who had often told him about Thessaloniki, but only after his death in 1972 Nicola finds out about his Jewish origins.  

The book tracks down the destiny of the rest of the members of the family. The uncles of Nicolas Sarkozy Asar Malla and Pepo Malla were members of the Greek Parliament in the first years of the 20^th century. Sarkozy himself visited Thessaloniki for the first time in 1973 in order to sell the estate he inherits from his mother. He sells it for 4000 French liras, which he sewed in his jacket in order to take them out of Greece.

In 2006 Nicolas Sarkozy received the honorary sign of the Thessaloniki Jewish association at an official ceremony in the French embassy in Athens. He visited Greece again in the first half of 2008, however already as a president of France.