Sarkozy hit by claims ex-wife was given fake €3,000-a-month job
Nicolas Sarkozy has been hit by claims his ex-wife was given a well-paid fictitious job as a part-time parliamentary assistant while he was in government.
Cécilia Attias, the former French president’s second wife, was reportedly employed as an assistant to the woman who stood in for Sarkozy as a centreright MP in the national assembly when he was promoted to interior minister under president Jacques Chirac in 2002.
The allegation has echoes of charges levelled against François Fillon, who was prime minister under Sarkozy, and his Welsh wife, Penelope, which led to them being convicted of embezzling public funds in June last year.
The satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchainé said Cécilia Sarkozy, as she was then, was paid nearly €3,100 a month to do just under 76 hours’ work. Le Canard said it could find no evidence she had done any work.
“Not one article, not the slightest report, not a single one of the numerous books about the ex-first lady mentions her job as parliamentary assistant to the Puteaux MP,” the newspaper wrote.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s entourage do not deny Cécilia Sarkozy was employed as a parliamentary assistant, but have vehemently denied accusations the job was “fictitious”.
“Cécilia Sarkozy’s professional contribution throughout Nicolas Sarkozy’s political life from 1988 to 2007 is well known publicly, as the numerous press articles published on the subject prove. She was notably very involved at Neuilly-sur-Seine [where Sarkozy was mayor] and more widely in the Hautsde-Seine constituency where her husband was the MP,” a member of Sarkozy’s team told French media.
“When he [Sarkozy] became minister of the interior in July 2002, she continued to help with issues as part of a part-time parliamentary assistant’s contract … a job she held for nine months until March 2003,” the source added. “Her work at grassroots level was so established she even considered presenting herself there for election.”
Rémi-Pierre Drai, the lawyer for Joëlle Ceccaldi-Raynaud, the MP Cécilia
Sarkozy was paid to assist in parliament, said there was no evidence of wrongdoing. “It has not been shown that there was an absence of actual work done,” Drai said, adding that in any case the accusations were well beyond the six-year limit for proceedings to be brought.
On Sud Radio, Guillaume Peltier, No 2 of the rightwing opposition Les Républicains party – of which Sarkozy is a member – rejected what he called the “tyranny of rumour”.
“For me, Nicolas Sarkozy is a politician, a statesman, who reformed, defended and protected our country and our people during difficult times and in a remarkable manner. I’m absolutely not interested in anything else. That’s for the courts to decide,” Peltier said.
Le Canard said it had examined numerous press articles written about Cécilia Sarkozy and her husband during the period she was employed, as well as the former first lady’s autobiography published in 2013, and found no mention of her parliamentary work. However, they did mention her work alongside her husband at the interior ministry, which she reportedly described as “voluntary”.
Last June, a French court found the Fillons guilty of fraud after hearing the former prime minister had paid his wife and two of their children up to €1m for non-existent jobs as parliamentary assistants.
François Fillon was sentenced to five years in jail with three suspended, and his wife was given a three-year suspended sentence. A third accused, Marc Joulaud, who took over Fillon’s constituency as MP in the national assembly while he was prime minister and also “employed” Penelope Fillon, was given a three-year suspended sentence and fined €20,000. All three have appealed against the convictions.
The “Penelopegate” scandal was also revealed by Le Canard Enchainé and cost Fillon the 2017 presidential election, opening the way for Emmanuel Macron.
In December, French prosecutors called for Nicolas Sarkozy to be convicted on charges of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced to four years in jail. It is one of several legal cases against Sarkozy, who was president between 2007 and 2012.
Since leaving office, he has been embroiled in separate investigations into alleged illegal campaign financing and allegations he took money from the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy denies all the allegations. Attias, a former model, divorced Sarkozy in October 2007 shortly after he became president. He married the model turned singer Carla Bruni the following year.