Silvio Berlusconi the end of April 2009, Berlusconi's wife Veronica Lario, who would divorce him several years later, wrote an open letter expressing her anger at Berlusconi's choice of young, attractive female candidates—some with little or no political experience—to represent the party in the 2009 European Parliament elections. Berlusconi demanded a public apology, claiming that for the third time his wife had "done this to me in the middle of an election campaign", and stated that there was little prospect of his marriage continuing. On 3 May, Lario announced she was filing for divorce. She claimed that Berlusconi had not attended his
Presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy and never really recovered, bar during his reelection attempt. That scandal was later admitted to have been a crucial point by party officials, who noticed UMP membership dramatically fell. On the other side, right-wing discontent grew as National Front's new president Marine Le Pen launched an early campaign. Sarkozy's confidence ratings later fell to 30% in early 2010 and reached 20% in May 2011. Presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy The presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy began on 16 May 2007 when Nicolas Sarkozy became the sixth President of the French Fifth Republic, following his victory in the 2007 presidential election. A candidate