When former President Nicolas Sarkozy has appeared in the French media in recent years, it has rarely been about serious politics and often about trouble with the judiciary. It’s easy to get confused with all the cases that were and are still pending against Sarkozy. There are three affairs that begin with the letter B: the Bettencourt affair, the Bygmalion affair, and the Bismuth affair.
Because of the latter, also known as the wiretapping affair, Sarkozy was in court a second time last year in an appeal. This Wednesday, the judges confirmed the decision of the first instance. At the time, Sarkozy had been sentenced to three years in prison, two of which were suspended, for bribery and trading in influence. The crimes committed by Sarkozy are all the more serious because they were committed by a former president, the presiding judge said in justifying the verdict.
The decision is a first in France. Since the founding of the Fifth Republic, a president has never had to serve a prison sentence without parole. Nevertheless, Sarkozy does not have to go to prison. As the court explained on Wednesday, he can spend his detention at home with electronic surveillance. Whether it will come to that is still an open question. A few minutes after the verdict, Sarkozy’s lawyer announced that he wanted to appeal.
The next thing is trouble in the so-called Libya affair
Sarkozy maintained his innocence until the end of the trial. “I’m not going to apologize for anything I didn’t do,” he said on the last day of the trial last December. He will fight to the end, not because he’s strong or intelligent, but because he’s innocent. Sarkozy was sitting in the front row when the verdict was announced in the Palais de Justice in Paris on Wednesday. Tanned as always. When he left the room, he did not comment.
The basis for the proceedings were wiretapped telephone calls between Nicolas Sarkozy and his former lawyer Thierry Herzog. In it, Sarkozy gave himself the alias Paul Bismuth. Together with his lawyer, he is said to have offered the then Advocate General Gilbert Azibert the prospect of support for a post in Monaco – on condition that he give insight into the proceedings of yet another affair in which Sarkozy was involved at the time. He was accused of having persuaded L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who was suffering from dementia, to donate to the party. However, the case was discontinued in 2013.
With the decision on Wednesday, the Sarkozy file is by no means closed. Just last week, the French financial prosecutor’s office announced that it had filed charges in the so-called Libya affair. Sarkozy is accused of illegally financing his 2007 election campaign with money from Libya. The public prosecutor’s office spoke of “misappropriation of public funds”, “bribery”, “membership in a criminal organization” and “illegal election campaign financing”. The French judiciary has been investigating the matter for years. The investigative court must now decide whether there will actually be a trial.
Nicolas Sarkozy, now 68, was President of France from 2007 to 2012. He has worked hard to earn his reputation as “Monsieur Bling Bling”. When Sarkozy ran for president again in 2012, his campaign was twice as expensive as the maximum budget set by law. Sarkozy lost the election anyway, and the socialist François Hollande became president. The French Constitutional Council later ordered Sarkozy’s party to reimburse eleven million euros.
Sarkozy’s supporters have become fewer and quieter
Sarkozy has already been on trial for this opulent campaign, more precisely because of its improper financing. In 2021, the criminal court found him guilty and sentenced him to one year in prison. Sarkozy also appealed against this, and the process is to be reopened in the fall.
While other past presidents lay wreaths and give eulogies, Sarkozy fights tirelessly with the judiciary. His hair has now turned grayer, and his appearances in the media are less frequent. When Sarkozy first appeared in court over the wiretapping scandal two years ago, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin defended him as an “honest man.” His party friends accused the judiciary of defamation and a political campaign. Meanwhile, his supporters have become fewer and quieter. A political comeback – which the media has repeatedly speculated about in recent years – seems unlikely after this week’s verdict.
Despite this, Nicolas Sarkozy remains influential. Current President Emmanuel Macron keeps inviting him to the Élysée Palace to hear his opinion, most recently earlier this year. Many of Sarkozy’s political protégés, such as Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, still hold important posts.
Conservative Republicans have failed to establish a strong leader since Sarkozy stepped down from the party leadership seven years ago. In a poll a few weeks ago almost a third of French people believed that Sarkozy could unite the right-wing camp in the 2027 presidential election.