LIVE – Elysee polls trial: Sarkozy left court after refusing to answer questions

After having opposed his silence in court, Nicolas Sarkozy left the courtroom, after barely 45 minutes at the bar.

The President of the court, impassive, unrolled all his questions in front of Nicolas Sarkozy who remained silent, sometimes getting annoyed.

The court’s last question that could have helped the defendants went unanswered:

“Claude Gueant affirms to have acted on your instructions, that could be the case of Emmanuelle Mignon and Julien Vaulpré too. Is it correct that these three people only carried out your instructions?”. Silence from Nicolas Sarkozy.

The president of the court asks questions to Nicolas Sarkozy but the latter remains silent. Once he said again:

“If I answered your questions, the separation of powers would no longer exist.”

The ex-president affirms that “the separation of the powers is not with variable geometry! I do not have the right to come to explain me on the way in which I organized my cabinet. I do not have the right to do so and I fully intend to apply the Constitution, “he said at the helm.

In his opening statement, the former head of state expresses some form of anger.

“Article 57 paragraph 1 offers definitive immunity. This protection is not the immunity of Nicolas Sarkozy, Francois Hollande or Emmanuel Macron. It protects the office and not the person! I fully understand that the Constitution does not forbid not but that’s the rule! “

And to add: “The principle is the separation of powers. As President of the Republic I am not accountable to a court but to the French.”

Nicolas Sarkozy has just entered the courtroom, called to the bar by the court. He says “respect the judicial institution” but considers that “the decision of the arrest warrant is unconstitutional and totally disproportionate”.

It has been two weeks since the trial began. This Tuesday, the hearing resumed at 1:30 p.m. but Nicolas Sarkozy has not yet been called to the bar.

Nicolas Sarkozy is the central figure in this file since, as President of the Republic at the material time, he is potentially the ordering party for these poll requests.

But whatever he decides to declare in court, he cannot be prosecuted because he still enjoys his presidential immunity for these acts.

His former collaborators face between two and seven years in prison for favoritism and embezzlement of public funds.

Invited this Tuesday morning on BMFTV and RMC, the president of LR Christian Jacob denounced for his part a “fierce” against the former president “as has never been the case for anyone, objectively”.

To date, the name of Nicolas Sarkozy appears in several court cases. In 2021, he was convicted in two cases: that of wiretapping and that of his campaign accounts for 2012, decisions against which he has, each time, appealed.

However, many questions remain around this unprecedented testimony. Nicolas Sarkozy could thus oppose silence to some or all of the questions, in particular by invoking professional secrecy.

“I do not respond to provocations (…) You have to be calm, not to be passionate, not to upset things. There is a Constitution, there are laws and you have to respect them, c ‘is the only thing I ask, “he claimed on October 20 on the sidelines of a signing session in Lyon.

“The spirit of the Constitution does not seem to me to be respected (…) It is very clear: a President of the Republic, for what happened during his mandate, does not have to be questioned, worried. justice made a different choice, I deplore it “, for his part declared this Tuesday on France 2 Xavier Bertrand, who hopes to represent the right in the presidential election of 2022.

The trial said of the Elysee polls concerns suspicion of favoritism and embezzlement of public funds by former collaborators of Nicolas Sarkozy.

The former head of state, covered by his presidential immunity, has never been prosecuted or heard in this case. But, dramatically, the president of the 32nd correctional chamber of the Paris court on October 19 ordered his appearance as a witness, deeming his hearing “necessary for the manifestation of the truth”. It is the Anticor association, civil party in this case, which called for his hearing.

Until now, justice had never forced a former president to testify on facts in connection with acts carried out in the exercise of his functions.

Hello and welcome to this live dedicated to the Elysée polls trial. This Tuesday, former President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to take the stand to be questioned as a witness.