2023-11-25 06:45:21
Nicolas Sarkozy at the helm, November 24, 2023. ERWAN FAGES FOR “THE WORLD”
To the exact word, Nicolas Sarkozy repeated, Friday November 24, before the Paris Court of Appeal the line of defense which had been his at first instance in the case of exceeding the ceiling of electoral expenses for his 2012 campaign, for which he was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment: “I have a political responsibility, I was the candidate, I was beaten, narrowly. I vigorously contest any criminal liability. »
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This “political responsibility”he recalled, he exercised it by organizing the “Sarkothon”, which made it possible to raise a little more than 10 million euros for the benefit of his party, the UMP, which became Les Républicains, i.e. the amount of state subsidy whose reimbursement had been refused after the invalidation of his campaign accounts by the Constitutional Council in July 2013. “These 10 million allow me to say that my 2012 campaign cost taxpayers nothing. »
For the rest, namely the system of false invoices put in place to conceal an excess of the ceiling of 22 million euros – double the amount authorized by law – Nicolas Sarkozy does not feel concerned. “I have never been aware of any fraud, I have never ordered any fraud. » It’s not him who says it, he insists, but a “great author”, investigating judge Serge Tournaire. The former president is, in fact, only being tried for exceeding the expenditure ceiling, unlike his co-defendants, dismissed for fraud or complicity, breach of trust or concealment, forgery, use or concealment of forgery. Nine of them appealed their convictions.
“The friends of Jean-François Copé”
Once again, therefore, Nicolas Sarkozy insists that he “chose no supplier, signed no invoice, met no service provider. I assure you that I had never heard the name Bygmalion”. Bygmalion, the company organizing his campaign meetings, with its subsidiary Event & Cie, are, he says, “the friends of Jean-François Copé”his hated opponent who then led the party. “There is undoubtedly a fraud in this matter. Did she take advantage of me? I dispute it. This system was not set up to make me win. It was set up behind the backs of my teams to make money for certain people”accuses the former President of the Republic.
The president, Pascaline Chamboncel-Saligue, and her assessors. ERWAN FAGES FOR “THE WORLD”
The problem with this defense argument, one of the judges reminds him, is that the investigation showed that the margins, certainly comfortable, achieved by this service provider are similar to those of its competitors in the events sector, and above all that the The amount invoiced by Bygmalion corresponds to services actually provided for the meetings of candidate Sarkozy. In their judgment, the judges of first instance concluded that the offenses with which the other defendants were accused had been committed “not on the occasion of an electoral campaign, but for the benefit of the campaign of a current President of the Republic, candidate for his own renewal”.
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