Former president Nicolas Sarkozy is convicted again for illegal financing of election campaign

Nicolas Sarkozy's judicial marathon is far from over.

The Court of Appeals this Wednesday sentenced the former French president for illegal financing of an electoral campaign to one year in prison, of which he would have to serve half and could do so at home and with an electronic bracelet.

Immediately, his lawyers announced an appeal to the Supreme Court, which leaves the sentence suspended until a new ruling.

Sarkozy will remain free.

The events date back to 2012, when the conservative Sarkozy, in office since 2007, ran for re-election.

His rival for the presidency was the socialist François Hollande.

It was a frenetic campaign, in which the then president, with the polls against him, multiplied large rallies without sparing any expenses.

In the end, he exceeded by more than 20 million euros the maximum authorized by law to spend on the campaign, which was 22.5 million euros.

To cover up the lack of control of the accounts, his party, the UMP, later renamed Los Republicanos, assumed the extraordinary expenses as its own, and not those of the campaign.

The Bygmalion events company, close to the UMP leaders, issued false invoices for services that never existed.

Hollande ended up defeating him.

In the so-called

Bygmalion Case

, Sarkozy has not been convicted for false invoices, like other defendants in the trial, but for exceeding the spending ceiling.

The judges, in the first instance, already considered it proven that, despite being warned during the campaign that he was spending more than allowed, he ignored it.

The former president defends his innocence.

He maintains that he was not aware of breaking the electoral spending ceiling and that he did not address these issues.

He declares himself a victim of judicial persecution.

Sarkozy's lawyers have appealed a second case before the Court of Cassation, equivalent to the Supreme Court.

This is the sentence for corruption and influence peddling, in the so-called

Wiretapping Case

, to three years in prison, of which he should serve one and could also do so in freedom and with an electronic bracelet.

And he is awaiting a third trial in 2025, potentially the most explosive of all he has faced so far, for the alleged financing of his 2007 campaign, which brought him to power, with money from Muammar's Libya. Gaddafi.

Sarkozy's lawyer in the case sentenced this Wednesday, Vincent Desry, has denounced "a double standard", in reference to the recent acquittal of the veteran centrist leader François Bayrou for a case of alleged irregular remuneration of assistants in the European Parliament.

Bayrou, an ally of President Emmanuel Macron since 2017, resigned last week to enter the Government because he says he disagrees with the current political line.

Sarkozy has never been a formal ally of Macron, but they speak and meet regularly.

The president listens to Sarkozy and he has influence.

With the appointment, in January, of his former Minister of Justice, Rachida Dati, he placed a pawn - another one, since there are already other ministers who come from his environment - in Macronism.

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