Sarkozy’s conviction: the humbling of the French elite
The conviction of Nicolas Sarkozy on charges of corruption and influence peddling has shaken France’s political establishment to its core, said Benjamin Dodman on France 24 (Paris). In a dramatic fall from grace, Sarkozy – who served as France’s centre-right president from 2007 to 2012 – was sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended, by a Paris court last week. The court found that he had conspired with his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, to offer a magistrate a plum job on the Côte d’Azur in return for information on an investigation into whether he had received illicit funds for his 2007 presidential campaign. The magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, never actually got the job – but both he and Herzog were nevertheless also found guilty and given a similar sentence to Sarkozy. All three were told they’d be able to serve their time at home with an electronic tag, and all will appeal. But even if Sarkozy doesn’t end up in jail, the verdict has “shattered long-held assumptions about the untouchability of French heads of state”.
Sarkozy’s hopes of a political comeback have effectively been dashed, said Le Monde (Paris). And rightly so. Popular though he may be among many on the right, his behaviour was “morally shocking”. Not only did he engage in a corrupt pact; he also sought to discredit the investigators. Not without reason, said Vincent Trémolet de Villers in Le Figaro (Paris). Sarkozy was “mercilessly” hunted – and tapped for months – by the financial prosecutor’s office, which was set up by his successor, François Hollande, and has been accused of unfairly targeting right-wing politicians. This is a harsh punishment for a plan that was never executed, and which Sarkozy claims was only “chatter”.
Yet his problems don’t end there, said Nadia Pantel in Süddeutsche Zeitung (Munich): he faces another trial over accusations that he breached campaign spending limits in 2012, as well as an investigation into claims that he received s50m from the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his 2007 election bid. His pursuit is part of a wider cultural shift in France, said Barbara Wesel in Deutsche Welle (Bonn). Recent years have seen a flurry of criminal cases against politicians, including the late president Jacques Chirac in 2011; and the 2017 presidential candidate François Fillon, who was jailed for embezzlement last year. It’s not before time. The impunity long enjoyed by France’s political elite has fuelled anger and the rise of the far-right. This verdict is “an important signal to the frustrated and disaffected French” that no one is above the law.