Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been convicted of illegal campaign financing in his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid after the country’s highest court rejected his final appeal.
Sarkozy, who was the country’s right-wing president between 2007 and 2012, was convicted of illegally hiding overspending for his failed re-election campaign, which was shaped by huge American-style rallies.
The case was nicknamed the “Bygmalion” affair because of the name of the event company that organized Sarkozy’s elaborate and artfully filmed stadium event in front of thousands of flag-waving fans while he was fighting for re-election. He ultimately lost to François Hollande of the Socialist Party.
In a 2021 lawsuit, the state prosecutor highlighted Sarkozy’s “couldn’t care less” attitude in demanding one rally a day as a giant “American-style show” and allowing costs for the presidential election campaign to rise well above the legal limit.
Prosecutors said accountants had warned Sarkozy that he was about to exceed the official €22.5m spending limit, but he insisted on holding more events to avoid Hollande, who was building up his hold as “Mr Normal” to crack down on the world of finance.
In the end, Sarkozy’s campaign spending reached at least €42.8m, nearly double the legal limit, prosecutors said.
Sarkozy, who denied all wrongdoing, entered an appeal process that took several years.
France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, which focuses on whether the law has been correctly applied rather than the facts of the case, has now upheld the earlier ruling, making Sarkozy’s conviction final.
Sarkozy, who was released from prison earlier this month in connection with 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. That six-month jail sentence can be served without going to jail through means like wearing an electronic tag.
Sarkozy has faced several legal challenges since leaving office. He is appealing his conviction for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain campaign funds for his 2007 presidential bid from the regime of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
This conviction led him to be sent to La Sainte prison in Paris in October, where he spent 20 days, an experience he described as “difficult” and a “nightmare”. He was released on 10 November.
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