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SARKOZY

Nicolas Sarkozy: From ‘bling-bling’ to busted flush

Nicolas Sarkozy, whose dream of a triumphant return to the French presidency was destroyed at the first hurdle Sunday, failed to shake off a reputation as one of the country's most divisive figures.

Nicolas Sarkozy: From 'bling-bling' to busted flush
All photos: AFP

With tough talk on immigration, security and national identity, the 61-year-old tried to woo voters tempted by the far-right National Front with an unabashedly populist campaign.

But the man known universally in France as “Sarko” was humiliated in the rightwing's first ever primary, finishing third behind the man who served as his prime minister, Francois Fillon, and another ex-premier, Alain Juppe.

“I have no bitterness, I have no sadness, and I wish the best for my country,” Sarkozy said in a dignified concession speech.

Sarkozy tried to bury the “bling-bling” image of his 2007-12 presidency by casting himself as a defender of the “down-and-outs against the elites”.

His taste for the high life — he is married to former top model Carla Bruni — and failure to make good on many of his promises had relegated him to a one-term presidency after he lost to Socialist Francois Hollande in 2012.

In his comeback bid, Sarkozy did not shrink from controversy, sharpening his anti-immigrant rhetoric after the Bastille Day truck massacre in Nice that claimed 86 lives.

The son of a Hungarian immigrant drew a line in the sand by saying in September: “Once you become French, your ancestors are the Gauls.”

The remarks appealed to the base of the Republicans party but alienated the moderate right and centre while appalling the left.

Pugnacious

His pugnacious style is seen as an asset by his admirers but a liability by his detractors who fault his apparent lack of self-control.

Many remember when Sarkozy visited the 2008 agriculture show in Paris — a fixture on any top politician's calendar — and said “get lost, dumbass” to a man who refused to shake his hand.

His temper also flared on Thursday during the last debate before the primary vote, when he slammed as “disgraceful” a question on fresh claims that he received millions in campaign funding from the regime of late Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

Born on January 28, 1955, the football fanatic and cycling enthusiast is an atypical French politician.

He has a law degree but unlike most of his peers did not attend the exclusive Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), the well-worn production line for future captains of government.

Sarkozy was the first French president to divorce, remarry and have a child — his fourth — while in office.

Former president Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy's first mentor, once said of him that he “has no doubts about anything, least of all about himself”.

Sarkozy became the mayor of the wealthy Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine at the age of 28, was an MP six years later and a minister by the age of 38.

After he won the presidency at 52 he was initially seen as injecting a much-needed dose of dynamism, making a splash on the international scene and wooing the corporate world.

It was partly his relationship with Bruni, coupled with his brash approach, that earned Sarkozy the “bling-bling” moniker.

French heads of state were once supposed to rise above the political fray, but opponents accused Sarkozy of cheapening the office.

He is still angered at criticism of his five years in power which were dominated by the 2008 financial crisis and its fallout.

Sarkozy likes to claim that he “saved Europe, if not the world, from a major crisis”.

But by the end of his term, he had some of the lowest popularity ratings for a post-war French leader. Only his nemesis Hollande has scored lower.

After his humiliating 2012 defeat by the socialist, Sarkozy famously promised that “you won't hear about me anymore” before turning to the lucrative international lecture circuit.

Few observers were surprised though when he returned to frontline politics in 2014, standing for and winning the leadership of the conservative UMP party, now renamed the Republicans.

Legal woes

A host of legal troubles failed to deter Sarkozy's bid to take care of what he considered unfinished business.

He became the first former head of state to be taken into custody for questioning when he was charged with corruption, influence peddling and violation of legal secrecy in July 2014.

In what is potentially the most damaging case, he is accused of conspiring with his lawyer to give a magistrate a lucrative job in exchange for inside information on a different corruption probe against him, in conversations on a secret phone registered under an assumed name.

by AFP's Beatrice Le Bohec

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SARKOZY

Corruption trial begins for France’s ex president Sarkozy

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial on Monday on charges of trying to bribe a judge, in what could be a humiliating postscript to a political career tainted by a litany of legal investigations.

Corruption trial begins for France's ex president Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy. Photo: AFP

Though he is not the first modern head of state in the dock – his predecessor and political mentor Jacques Chirac was convicted of embezzlement – Sarkozy is the first to face corruption charges.

He fought furiously over the past six years to have the case thrown out, and has denounced “a scandal that will go down in history”.

“I am not a crook,” the 65-year-old, whose combative style has made him one of France's most popular rightwing politicians, told BFM TV this month.

Prosecutors say Sarkozy promised the judge a plush job in Monaco in exchange for inside information on an inquiry into claims that Sarkozy accepted illicit payments from L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign.

Their case rests in large part on wiretaps of phone conversations between Sarkozy and his longtime lawyer Thierry Herzog, which judges authorised as prosecutors also looked into suspected Libyan financing of Sarkozy's 2007 campaign.

That inquiry is still underway, though Sarkozy caught a break this month when his main accuser, the French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, suddenly retracted his claim of delivering millions of euros in cash from Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Sarkozy and Herzog have assailed the taps on their phones as a breach of client-attorney privilege, but in 2016 a top court upheld their use as evidence.

Charged with bribery and influence peddling, Sarkozy risks a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a maximum fine of €1 million.

Herzog, a leading member of the Paris bar, faces the same charges as well as violation of professional secrecy. The trial is expected to last three weeks.

'A boost'

Investigators discovered that Sarkozy used an alias – Paul Bismuth – to buy a private phone for conversing secretly with his lawyer.

On around a dozen occasions, they discussed reaching out to a top French judge, Gilbert Azibert, a general counsel at the Cour de Cassation, France's top appeals court for criminal and civil cases.

Prosecutors say Azibert, who is also on trial, was tasked with trying to obtain information from the Cour de Cassation lawyer in charge of the Bettencourt inquiry, and to induce him to seek a verdict in Sarkozy's favour.

In exchange, Sarkozy would use his extensive contacts to give “a boost” to Azibert's efforts to secure the cushy Monaco post.

“He's been working on it,” Herzog tells Sarkozy in a call from early 2014.
Azibert was already considered a leading candidate for the job, but “if you give him a boost, it's always better,” Herzog says in another.

“I'll make him move up,” Sarkozy tells Herzog, according to the indictment by prosecutors, who compared his actions to those of a “seasoned offender”.

But later, Sarkozy tells his lawyer that he would not “approach” the  Monaco authorities on Azibert's behalf — a sign, according to prosecutors, that the two men had been tipped off about the wiretaps.

“Mr Azibert never got any post in Monaco,” Sarkozy told BFM television this month – though under French law, just an offer or promise can constitute corruption.

Still in limelight

Sarkozy, a lawyer by training, has long accused the French judiciary of waging a vendetta against him, not least because of his attempts to limit judges' powers and criticism that they are too soft on delinquents.

He will again be back in court in March 2021 along with 13 other people over claims of campaign finance violations during his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid.

Prosecutors accuse Sarkozy's team of using a fake-invoices scheme orchestrated by the public relations firm Bygmalion to spend nearly €43 million on the lavish run – nearly twice the legal limit.

The long-running legal travails hindered his comeback bid for the 2017 presidential vote, losing out as the rightwing nominee to his former prime minister François Fillon.

Yet like other former French presidents, Sarkozy has surfed a wave of popularity since announcing his retirement from politics in 2018, pressing the flesh with enthusiastic crowds at his public appearances.

Lines of fans queued over the summer to have him sign his latest memoirs, “The Time of Storms”, which topped best-seller lists for weeks.

SEE ALSO: Sarkozy accused of racism after 'monkey' comment

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