Nicolas Sarkozy’s new book, “A Prisoner’s Diary,” was published in less than three weeks and provides a colorful account of what it was like for a former president to find himself locked up in a segregated cell of a French prison.

We learned that prisoner number 320535 has a 12-square-meter cell equipped with a bed, desk, refrigerator, shower and TV. There is a window but the view is blocked by a huge plastic panel placed outside.

“It’s clean enough and bright enough,” Sarkozy wrote. “If it weren’t for the fact that there was an eyehole in the reinforced door for the guards to see through, one would almost think they were in a dingy hotel.”

Sarkozy, 70, was released last month from Paris’s La Sainte prison after serving 20 days after being sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a campaign-financing conspiracy. This is his 216 page memoir.

Told that he must spend 23 out of 24 hours in his room and prohibited from contact with anyone other than prison staff, the former president chose not to take daily walks in the courtyard, which is “more of a cage than a place to walk”.

Instead, he works out every day on the treadmill in the tiny exercise room, which “becomes a veritable oasis in my case.”

There were many such incidents: On his first night in prison, a neighbor in the quarantine area sang songs from “The Lion King” and rattled a spoon along the bars of his cell, keeping him awake.

How he was “touched by the kindness, attentiveness and respect of the prison staff…everyone addressed me by the title of president”.

And how he was able to cover the walls of his cell with postcards from everyone who wrote to express their support.

“It was touching and heartfelt, a testament to a deep personal bond, even though I have long since left office,” he wrote.

The details are mesmerizing. Perhaps more important are reflections on destiny, justice and politics.

Sarkozy was jailed 20 years ago after he was found guilty of a criminal gang for allowing subordinates to try to raise electoral funds from Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

At the end of the trial in October, a judge could have allowed Sarkozy to remain free while he appealed, but instead ruled that he should be jailed. After three weeks in jail, he was allowed to be released after pleading with his lawyers.

The former president has vehemently denied the charges against him and claimed he was the victim of a politically motivated cabal within the French justice system.

This is all rehearsed in the book. Indeed, Sarkozy at one point compared himself to France’s most famous judicial victim, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer who was sent to Devil’s Island on trumped-up espionage charges.

“To any impartial observer aware of their history, the similarities are striking,” he wrote.

“The Dreyfus affair stemmed from false documents. Mine was the same…Dreyfus was demeaned in front of the army when they stripped him of his medals. I was stripped of the Legion of Honor in front of the nation.”

“Dreyfus was imprisoned in Santes prison—a place with which I am now familiar,” he wrote.

Sarkozy’s dismissal of the Legion of Honor – which he had served as Grand Master during his presidency – was an opportunity to settle scores with France’s current president, Emmanuel Macron.

Sarkozy is no longer a close supporter of Macron and now says he has “turned the page – but without systematically opposing him politically or personally.”

“Emmanuel Macron already has too many open enemies, detractors and disappointed friends for me to add to their number.”

Sarkozy’s grievance is that Macron never had the “courage” to call him personally to explain why he was being discharged. “Had he called, I would have understood his argument and accepted the decision,” he wrote. “Failure to do so suggests that his motives were at least insincere.”

But in France, it was Sarkozy’s relationship with another political leader, Marine Le Pen, that attracted the most attention from critics of the book. That’s because the former president has shown unusual affection for his one-time chief rival.

“I appreciate the public statements she made after my conviction, which were brave and completely unambiguous,” he wrote.

Sarkozy called to thank her and he said they had a friendly conversation that ended with him pledging not to join any future “Republican Front” aimed at preventing her national rallies from winning elections.

He later continued: “When I was active in politics, many of today’s voters (RN) were my supporters… To insult the leaders of the RN is to insult their voters, that is to say those who are our potential voters.

“I have many disagreements with RN leaders … but excluding them from the Republican Party would be a mistake.”

Such praise from the mainstream is rare for Marine Le Pen and her young co-leader Jordan Bardera.

Coming from a former president who remains very influential among France’s traditional right, this quote is like political gold dust.