Affair about opinion polls
Sarkozy’s ex-employees must be arrested
1/21/2022 6:52 p.m
France’s ex-president Sarkozy is no stranger to the judiciary. He himself has to serve a one-year prison sentence for bribery, among other things. Now several of his ex-employees are also in custody.
Several former associates of French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy have been sentenced to prison terms in an opinion poll affair. A court sentenced the former secretary-general of the Elysée Palace, Claude Guéant, to one year in prison for favoritism, including eight months without parole. Guéant is already in prison for another affair and failed to appear in court.
Sarkozy’s former head of cabinet, Emmanuelle Mignon, was sentenced to six months’ suspended imprisonment for favoritism, while presidential adviser Patrick Buisson received a two-year suspended sentence. Another Elysée employee was acquitted.
The case involved surveys worth several million euros that had been commissioned during Sarkozy’s tenure without a public tender. Sarkozy himself was protected from indictment by his official immunity. Surprisingly, the court called him as a witness.
Sarkozy had gotten worked up about his summons in court and made no substantive statements about the affair. It was the first time a French court had called a former president to testify about what happened during his tenure.
The 66-year-old ex-president had already been sentenced to one year in prison without parole in two other affairs. The first case involved bribery and illegal influence on the judiciary, the second about illegal campaign financing. Sarkozy appealed in both cases.