Sarkozy has joined legion of dishonour

Next year’s presidential election in France will probably come down again to a contest between President Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, leader of Rassemblement National. This confrontation between liberal centrism and far-right nationalism is the current default setting of French politics, consigning to the past for now the traditional struggle between socialists and conservatives for occupancy of the Elysée.

Perhaps at least part of the explanation for that can be found in France’s criminal justice system. Nicolas Sarkozy will appeal against Monday’s humiliating conviction for corruption and influence peddling. But if the judgment and unprecedented prison sentence is upheld, the former conservative president will join the centre-right’s presidential candidate of 2017, François Fillon, in a lengthening roll of dishonour. Three years ago Fillon led in the presidential polls until it was revealed that about €1m from the public purse was paid illegally to his wife and relatives. His party’s fortunes have yet to recover fully.

Socialist former budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac was found guilty of tax fraud in 2016 and given a three-year sentence. President François Hollande had entrusted him with the launch of a crackdown on tax evasion, and his fall was a blow to his party. The implosion of the two main forces on the centre-right and centre-left paved the way for Macron’s astonishingly rapid rise.

A cleanup of the French political establishment was overdue. As this week’s court drama indicated, postwar deference towards the sharp practice of the country’s elite, past and present, has long gone.

Sarkozy was found guilty of attempting to bribe a magistrate. A further trial, beginning later in March, will rule on alleged overspending during his 2012 re-election campaign. Whatever the result of his appeal, it seems certain his political career is over. /London, March 2