Nicolas Sarkozy convicted of illegal campaign financing in failed 2012 re-election bid | Nicolas Sarkozy

France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of illegal campaign financing in his unsuccessful 2012 re-election campaign after the country’s highest court rejected Sarkozy’s final appeal.
Sarkozy, the country’s right-wing president between 2007 and 2012, was convicted of concealing illegal excessive spending in his unsuccessful re-election campaign, which was shaped by large American-style rallies.
The case has been dubbed the “Bygmalion” affair, after the name of the events company that organized Sarkozy’s stadium shows, which were painstakingly and expertly filmed in front of thousands of flag-waving fans as he fought for re-election. Ultimately, he lost to François Hollande from the Socialist party.
At a hearing in 2021, the prosecutor had highlighted Sarkozy’s “reckless” attitude in demanding one rally a day in the form of “major American-style demonstrations” and allowing costs to rise significantly above the legal limit for a presidential election campaign.
The prosecution said accountants warned Sarkozy that he was about to exceed the official spending cap of 22.5 million euros, but Sarkozy insisted that more events be held to fend off Hollande, who was gaining ground as a “Mr Normal” who wanted to bring down the financial world.
Ultimately, Sarkozy’s campaign spending reached at least 42.8 million euros, nearly double the legal limit, prosecutors said.
Sarkozy, who denied all wrongdoing, resorted to an appeal process that lasted several years.
Focusing on whether the law was correctly applied rather than the facts of the case, France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, confirmed Sarkozy’s conviction by upholding an earlier decision.
Sarkozy, who was released from prison earlier this month due to a separate conviction, will now have to serve his sentence. On appeal, he was sentenced to one year in prison, half of which was suspended. This six-month prison sentence can be served without going to jail through methods such as wearing an electronic tag.
Sarkozy has faced a series of legal challenges since leaving office. He is appealing his conviction for criminal conspiracy related to a scheme to obtain campaign funds for his 2007 presidential bid from the regime of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
This was the conviction that led him to go to La Santé prison in Paris in October and spend 20 days there; he described the experience as “grueling” and a “nightmare”. He was released on November 10.




