He was eagerly awaiting this deadline and finds himself, ironic of the fate which strikes his two lawyers, My Christian Saint-Palais and Laure Moureu, both patients of Covid-19, forced to request the postponement.
"It's a blow of the club, concedes Jérôme Lavrilleux, 51 years old.
I've been waiting for this trial for four years, since the judge issued his removal order in February 2017, when everyone else has appealed all over the place.
"To turn the page?
"No, you're not turning the page, that's flippancy."
I will undoubtedly be condemned, since I recognized part of what is reproached to me.
I am ready to take responsibility, but I can be defended ”, goes tit for tat the former MEP, who became the boss of lodgings in the Dordogne.
In the genesis of the so-called Bygmalion affair, which he calls “the Nicolas Sarkozy 2012 campaign accounts affair”, Jérôme Lavrilleux embodies the one who unboxes everything.
Who has forgotten the pale face of this man, moved to tears, revealing, lips tight in the face of Ruth Elkrief, on BFMTV on May 26, 2014, that a system of false invoices had been set up within the UMP, which has become The Republicans in 2015, to hide the explosion in spending?
"A TGV that gets carried away"
A foot in the party, because the right-hand man of the secretary general at the time, Jean-François Copé, of whom he is a faithful, a foot in the campaign of the outgoing president, as deputy director, Jérôme Lavrilleux then clears the two: “I never spoke about it, neither with Nicolas Sarkozy, nor with Jean-François Cope.
He also insisted: "In the affair we are talking about, there was no embezzlement, no cash payment.
"
In charge of the organization of meetings, and, therefore, in constant contact with the manager of Event & Cie, the Bygmalion subsidiary chosen as service provider, Jérôme Lavrilleux always uses, as during this TV set, "the image of a fast-moving TGV ”to describe this campaign.
A contested runaway on the side of Nicolas Sarkozy.
He spins the metaphor: “The train is moving faster and faster and I don't have the courage to sound the alarm.
I'm in the lead car, but not in the cockpit.
"Sent to correctional for" use of forgery "and" concealment of breach of trust ", it is also for" complicity in fraud "and" complicity in illegal financing of electoral campaign ".
He slips: “If I am an accomplice, it is because there is a main author.
"But when we ask him:" Who?
», He kicks in touch.
“It's up to the court to say that.
"
"I have not been involved in shenanigans of this type"
Faced with the examining magistrate, Jérôme Lavrilleux has always maintained that he was "informed that the expenses had largely exceeded the official budget" only in May, that is to say "at the time when the
(campaign) account
was deposited" - there where the instruction situates the implementation of the false invoicing system from the second half of March.
He admits not having opposed the breakdown between the campaign account and the UMP, but denies having been at the origin of this choice.
Targeted by the rumors spread against Jean-François Cope - "as a means of defense by the Sarkozy clan", he specifies - he underlines: "During the whole investigation, I opposed the suspicion of 'a war chest or money diverted for the benefit of Cope or I do not know who.
And the investigation has wreaked havoc on all of this.
What matters most to me is that justice confirms that I have not been involved in shenanigans of this type.
"
"My life stopped on May 26, 2014"
After the five years of his mandate as MEP (2014-2019), Jérôme Lavrilleux has chosen to retrain in the hotel industry with the opening of three lodges in the Périgord Vert, in old buildings that he has retyped with the help of his father.
“It's my main activity,” he explains.
Even though my income collapsed with the Covid.
"
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
VIDEO. Jérôme Lavrilleux: the astonishing reconversion of the former MEP
A year ago, a way of reconnecting with politics "in the sense of city life", he set up "a citizen communication consulting company" called Pacap, for "Appropriation process by citizens of the public or private action ”.
“I help communities or businesses with projects of this type,” he explains.
I limit myself to five clients.
»Among these, the city of Rillieux-la-Pape (Rhône) and the Paca region.
“I continue to watch the politics of my country,” he says.
I loved being an MEP, it was fascinating!
But I am no longer involved in any electoral campaign.
I am vaccinated.
"
And when he is reminded that he faces a five-year prison sentence, and that he is asked if he is ready, one day, to have to go behind bars, he replies: "I intend to defend myself and explain. . We'll see. In a way, my life stopped on May 26, 2014
(Editor's note: the day of his televised “confession”)
. I have been paying for seven years. "