“People are not fooled by anything”, declared this Saturday Nicolas Sarkozy during a signing session of his new book, two days after his sentence to one year in prison for the illegal financing of his lost presidential campaign of 2012 in the Bygmalion folder.
The former head of state, who announced that he was appealing this decision, arrived shortly before 11 a.m. in a bookseller in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, where around 200 people were waiting for him, including lawyer Francis Szpiner, mayor. of the XVIth arrondissement. His supporters urged him to “hold on”, infusing him with “courage” and insisting: “we are here”.
“Thousands and thousands” of messages of support
“It is very moving and at the same time very reassuring on the state of mind of the country, on the fact that people are not fooled by anything (…) they understood”, commented Nicolas Sarkozy in front of the many cameras of television on site, while starting to dedicate his book Walks (Ed. Herscher)
Asked about Prime Minister Jean Castex who had shown him his “friendship” and “affection” on a “personal basis” on Thursday, the former President of the Republic (2007-2012) said: “It made me very happy, I am not surprised by him, I am very sensitive to it, I have received thousands and thousands ”of messages of support. Emmanuel Macron too, asked a journalist? “Ask him, it’s not for me to say”, replied Nicolas Sarkozy.
Regarding his actual conviction, he insisted: “What I think is anecdotal, what people think is much more serious. I’m not necessarily the most objective ”to comment. In a message on social networks Thursday, Nicolas Sarkozy had denounced “an injustice” and promised to go “to the end”. In March, Nicolas Sarkozy became the first former President of the Fifth Republic to be sentenced to prison – three years including one – for corruption and influence peddling, in the so-called “wiretapping” affair. He also appealed, thus de facto suspending this sentence.