Sarkozy denies in court having known of the illegal financing of his presidential campaign

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, 66, now retired from active politics, has once again had to step on a court as a defendant. This time, three months after being sentenced in March to three years in prison for corruption - although he has appealed the sentence - the head of state between 2007 and 2012 has to answer for the illegal financing of his failed campaign for reelection in an election that he lost to the socialist François Hollande. With his usual vehemence and gestures, Sarkozy has conclusively denied before the judges in Paris this Tuesday any involvement in the so-called Bygmalion case, for which he faces a sentence of up to one year in prison if convicted.

Despite the fact that the trial began on May 20, Sarkozy went to the Paris court for the first time in this case after noon this Tuesday, eagerly followed by the cameras that accompanied him to the door of the room where the so-called operation is being analyzed. Bygmalion. This is the name of the communication and events company that organized the rallies for Sarkozy's reelection attempt, which spent almost double the 22.5 million euros authorized by electoral regulations on his campaign. To hide it, instead of the campaign assuming it, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), as Sarkozy's conservative party was called before he renamed it Los Republicanos (LR), in 2015. The operation was disguised with false invoices issued by Bygmalion,which included non-existent services such as conferences or events that never took place.

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Due to these events, 13 company officials, accountants and those responsible for the campaign, accused of fraud and double billing, sit before the bench.

The charge facing Sarkozy, the fourteenth defendant, is "illegal campaign financing", for which, in addition to a prison sentence, he could receive a fine of up to 3,750 euros.

Sarkozy refused to have known anything about the goings-on of his campaign and to not even know the name of the company that gives its name to the new case - but not the last - which constitutes a judicial headache for the ex-president.

“At that time, I had never heard of Bygmalion. They never mentioned the name of Bygmalion to me, never, never, ”he asserted before the correctional court that is hearing the case until June 22. “It was up to the campaign manager to organize the campaign and to me to do it. I am known to delegate a lot. I can't take care of everything, ”he insisted to the president of the court, Caroline Viguier. She also wanted to know from the former president “how the campaign was organized (…) who, how, what?”, And if there was an “acceleration” of it greater than was initially anticipated, in reference to the large number of events that Sarkozy held at the time: instead of the 15 planned rallies, he ended up holding 44, many of them lavish and for which he did not even hesitate to transfer supporters on high-speed trains from all over the country on account of the campaign.

"I've been doing politics for 40 years, it's my life, when it comes to campaigns, I know them," the former president replied, according to media present in the room. "I have never seen a campaign, small or large, that does not accelerate," he added, to ensure that the 2012 campaign was not different in this sense from others, especially the 2007 campaign that brought him to power. "I would like you to explain to me in what sense I campaigned more in 2012 than in 2007. It is false!" Claimed Sarkozy, for whom to speak of an acceleration of the campaign is "a fable". "We did the same cities, the same rooms as the other candidates," he insisted, while affirming that he never gave "directives" on how to conduct the campaign, since he joined it late because he had to comply with his functions as president.

“We should have been more demanding, but was there an intention of fraud?

No. How did the Bygmalion system get into the campaign?

I am not here to accuse anyone "

Nicolas Sarkozy

It was Guillaume Lambert, director of his campaign in 2012 and also a defendant, who "implemented the political decisions, and the decisions were made by himself," he told the court.

"In no way did I give him directives," reiterated the former French president, according to which he only learned about the case in 2014, when the former number two of his campaign, Jérôme Lavrilleux, revealed in a television interview the hidden funding that is now before the courts.

Aware that, especially less than a year after a complicated presidential campaign in which he could be a key figure even though he is officially away from the front line of politics, Sarkozy, who is a lawyer by training, even made a statement before the attending public , turning his back on the court that will decide his fate, highlights Efe.

"I defend my honor and I do it with passion," he said of his vehemence in presenting his arguments.

“Was I negligent and reckless?

No. From the moment everyone told me everything was fine, I had no reason to worry.

We should have been more demanding, but was there any intention of fraud?

No. How did the Bygmalion system get into the campaign?

I am not here to accuse anyone, "concluded Sarkozy.