The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy received a one-year jail sentence today (30 September 2021) after a long trial spanning over the last year. He was found guilty of spending tens of millions more on his failed presidential campaign than what was allowed by law.
We explore the first inklings of alleged corruption to give you an extended background information on his current situation.
Nicolas Sarkozy – the President
Nicolas Sarkozy was born on 28 January 1955 in Paris, France, in the family of Pál István Ernő Sárközy de Nagy-Bócsa, a Hungarian nobleman, and Andrée Jeanne “Dadu” Mallah, a wealthy woman of mixed Greek Jewish and French ancestry. Nicolas’s comfortable upbringing helped pave his way to the highest office in the land – the presidency.
After spending more than 20 years in French politics, Nicolas Sarkozy won the 2007 presidential elections to become the sixth president of the French Fifth Republic. He won as a member of the now-dissolved centre-right party Union for a Popular Movement (French: Union pour un mouvement populaire).
Sarkozy experienced many challenges during his five years long presidency. He had to navigate a tense post-9/11 international scene, which proved to be more difficult than he expected. He also had to deal with the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 in the infancy of his presidency.
Sarkozy was often blasted by various political parties and organizations, both on the left and right. The former French president had some colourful remarks throughout the years, which seemed to anger people all across the political spectrum. However, the accusations of corruption are the ones that really stuck and likely cost him re-election.
Allegations of Corruption
Not long after he was inaugurated, Sarkozy invited the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on an official visit to France. This move was strongly criticised by his opponents and some members of his own cabinet. The visit was also met with protests around the country.
The situation only got worse when it was revealed that France signed an arms trade deal with Libya, which included the sale of aircrafts, fighter jets, and military helicopters; a nuclear cooperation agreement was also signed. He was branded a Libyan agent.
Although Sarkozy was one of the first world leaders to condemn Gaddafi and ask for his resignation in 2011, this only added fuel to the fire since the public thought he was trying to hide something.
During the Libyan Civil War, Saif-al-Islam Gaddafi (Muammar’s son) appeared to confirm these doubts. Saif-al-Islam said his father gave Sarkozy 50 million euros for his 2007 presidential campaign. Afterwards, Ziad Takieddine, a French-Lebanese businessman, claimed he personally delivered suitcases from Libya containing 5 million euros to Sarkozy and his chief of staff.
Libya Case and Bettencourt Affair
An official investigation into Sarkozy’s alleged corruption was opened in 2013, but the charges only stuck in 2018. The charges included illegal campaign financing, passive corruption, and misappropriation of Libyan public funds.
The Libya case against the former president is ongoing, but strangely, one of the key witnesses – Ziad Tedieddine – retracted his original statement in November 2020, and he now claims he never gave any money to Sarkozy or his associates. Interestingly, this wasn’t the first case of illegal campaign financing that Sarkozy faced.
In 2011, tape recordings of the French heiress Lilian Bettencourt were released by her butler and presented as evidence that she committed tax fraud and engaged in other illegal activities. The Bettencourt affair also revealed that the French billionairess donated 150 000 euros to Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign, which is 145 500 euros more than what is allowed by law. Sarkozy was indicted but the charges against him were dropped in 2013.
However, Sarkozy stood trial for a reason relating to the Bettencourt affair. Apparently, he tried to corrupt a judge assigned to the case by offering him a cushy job in Monaco if the judge released information on the case. Sarkozy was found guilty in March 2021 and received a 3-year jail sentence (2 years suspended).
His lawyer Thierry Herzog and the judge Gilbert Azibert received the same sentence. The state built its case by using tape recordings of Herzog and Sarkozy acquired through wiretapping. Their conversations appeared to confirm the allegations.
The Bygmalion Affair
The Bygmalion affair refers to accusations that Sarkozy and his party (UMP) used the French public relations firm Bygmalion to hide the actual cost of his failed re-election campaign in 2012. According to the allegations, Bygmalion sent invoices to the party rather than the campaign in order to evade the spending limit of a presidential campaign, which was then set at 22.5 million euros.
By contrast, the Sarkozy campaign is said to have spent 42.8 million euros, which is almost double than what was permitted by law. Sarkozy was found guilty today and he faces a yearlong jail sentence (half suspended), but even if his appeal fails to overturn it, he wouldn’t have to go to prison and can instead spend a year in house arrest.
This is the second prison sentence handed to the former French president in one year. There are other active cases against him, and it seems like the state has a strong case against him.