MENTON, France, March 5 (Reuters) - In a French Riviera town nestled between the mountains, the Mediterranean and the Italian border, a disgraced former president's son is hoping to launch his political career with a new, untested brand of conservatism flecked with U.S. influence.
Louis Sarkozy, 28, son of ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy, spent his teens and early 20s living in the United States, where he said he forged his political identity during an era dominated by President Donald Trump.
Now back in France, Sarkozy is using this month's mayoral election in the small town of Menton as a testing ground for whether his household name and Trump-inflected brand of right-wing politics can outflank a strong far-right rival rooted in traditional French nationalism.
SUPPORT FROM CENTRIST AND CENTRE-RIGHT RIVALS
Sarkozy's political platform is tailored to local themes, such as a housing crisis sparked by an influx of vacation rentals and fighting crime. He is running without any party affiliation but is supported by centrist and centre-right rivals, who have backed him with the aim of preventing a far-right National Rally (RN) victory.
Louis Sarkozy hopes he can follow in the footsteps of his father, who used the mayorship of the wealthy Paris suburb of Neuilly as a catapult to the presidency.
But he is aware the Sarkozy name could also prove a hindrance. His father was briefly jailed last year on corruption charges he denies, and has spent much of his post-presidency life grappling with a series of legal scandals that have tarnished the family name.
"Son of a prisoner," was graffitied on Sarkozy's Menton HQ last month, and locals' reaction to his candidacy has been mixed. The National Rally candidate Alexandra Masson was well ahead of Sarkozy in the only poll to come from Menton, but he is likely to win enough votes to reach a second round, where alliances with rivals provide a possible path to victory.
"People do not vote for you because your name is Sarkozy, they vote for your project," he told Reuters, adding that his father was advising him on the race.
US INFLUENCE
Sarkozy, a well-known figure from the French tabloids who rides a motorcycle and flaunts his arm tattoos and wariness of progressive ideas, said he was a fusion of classic French liberalism, cut through with conservative U.S. ideas on immigration and security. While he is avowedly tough on crime, he also supports the decriminalization of drugs.
Although not explicitly pro-Trump, an unpopular figure in France, Sarkozy said he judged him on a case-by-case basis.
He is critical of the Trump administration's handling of immigration policy and has previously called for legal immigrants to do military service - a move he says would help keep numbers low.
Sarkozy - who spent four years at a military school in rural Pennsylvania, a perch which he said gave him a good insight into the real America - also criticised Trump's threats against Greenland. But he gave him credit for "doing exactly what he said," adding "he is much more popular than we think".
Sarkozy's support of the U.S. entrepreneurial economic model was much more full-throated, arguing France was hamstrung by restrictive labour laws and a pension system that was no longer fit for purpose.
"We must ...unblock our companies, let the French work. Work longer in life, work longer in the week even if it is not popular," he said. "Either we do it now, or it is an IMF rescue plan that makes us do it in 25 years."
Sarkozy is part of a generational shift, with a small but growing number of political figures seeking to instil Trumpian ideas among the conservative French right. Another is Sarah Knafo, a little-known European Parliament lawmaker running for Paris City Hall.
"This discourse from the United States resonates with a significant segment of the population favourable to Trump's 'I say it, I do it' brand of politics," said Stewart Chau, Research Director at Verian.
TECTONIC PLATES SHIFTING ON FRENCH RIGHT
Sarkozy's reimagining of French conservatism underlines the shifts on the political right, as the centre-right Les Republicains party grapples for an answer to Marine Le Pen's ascending National Rally.
Sarkozy called Masson "a good candidate", but he ruled out any alliance with the RN.
"It is an opposition party, a party made to shout," he said, adding he believed the far right would struggle with the responsibilities of power if it won on a national level.
Masson was dismissive of Sarkozy's parachuting into Menton, calling him a "Franco-American boy" who "lacks territorial anchoring."
"People know that I am very invested in local issues," Masson said.
As he was out campaigning in Menton, Sarkozy was joined by his mother Cécilia Attias, who had flown in from New York.
"Louis needs to know France and there is nothing better than a municipal mandate for that," she said.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by Gabriel Stargardter and Alex Richardson)
