Sarkozy, 52, has never made a secret of his ambitions. This tough-talking interior minister and head of the right-wing UMP party has used President Jacques Chirac's entire second term to set up his own run for the country's top job. The son of an aristocratic Hungarian immigrant, Sarkozy was born and raised in Paris. By the time he was 28, he'd been elected mayor of the toney Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. As Sarkozy rose through party ranks, Chirac took him under his wing. By the time he was 38, the rising star of the right was France's budget minister. But in 1995 Sarkozy miscalculated: he backed Chirac's right-wing rival for the presidency, and lost. Not until 2002, did he make it back into the cabinet, first as interior minister, then finance minister, then again at interior. Sarkozy takes hard-line stances on immigration and delinquency and likes to project an image as a free-market reformer. He is married to former model Cecilia Ciganer-Albaniz, with whom he has a son. He also has two boys from a previous marriage.