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The First President of the French Fifth Republic to Go to Prison? – Sarkozy and His Politic Life

On 1 March 2021, the French Court of Misdemeanors found Nicholas Sarkozy guilty of “corruption” and “using power for personal gain” and the 66-year-old Republican former president faces three years in prison, including one year in prison. Sarkozy thus becomes the first head of state to face prison since the creation of the French Fifth Republic. Sarkozy has been accused of corruption and abuse of power several times during his political career, and the sentence is a severe blow to Sarkozy, who had previously expressed his desire to run for the presidency in 2022. Nicholas Sarkozy’s father, Pal Sarkozy, was a Hungarian who fled Soviet Red Army-occupied Hungary in 1944, arrived in France as a refugee and then lived and worked in Paris. From 1979 to 1981, Sarkozy enrolled at Sciences Pais, the “cradle of French politicians”, but failed to obtain a master’s degree because he failed English. He was elected mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine five years later, making him the youngest mayor in French history. He then joined the right-wing party Rassemblement pour la République (RDR) and served as its general secretary, but the party’s sluggish support led to a merger with Democratie Liberale and Union pour la Démocratie Franaise (UDF) in 2002 to form the Union pour la Mouvement Populaire (UMP). In the 2002 French elections, Sarkozy joined the re-election campaign of then President Chirac and was later appointed Minister of the Interior. As the second head of government, Sarkozy’s main tasks included reforming the law and maintaining administrative relations between the center and the localities. During his tenure as Minister of the Interior, he adopted a series of relatively hard-liner policies that gained him a lot of public support and laid the foundations for his future presidential bid. Sarkozy was elected President of the Union pour un Movement Populaire (UMP) in 2005 and won the 2007 presidential election with 53% of the vote to become the 6th President of the French Fifth Republic.

Sarkozy has received mixed reviews for his strong political approach and personal style. During his term in office, Sarkozy has been pushing for economic reforms, including exemptions from taxation on overtime work and social security contributions, a 4% reduction in taxes and social contributions, which will This flexibility would encourage business owners to hire more workers by prohibiting “golden parachute” arrangements for senior managers and preventing the privilege of share trading being restricted to the owner of the company. workers have the right to refuse to work overtime; reduce the number of public sector workers, increase public service pay levels and reduce the government’s public debt.

When Sarkozy came to power, he promised to reduce unemployment to 5%, but statistics at the end of February 2012 showed that unemployment in France had increased for 10 consecutive months, rising to 9.4%. Sarkozy also promised to reduce the government’s public debt by 60% and to increase the level of public spending growth to 1.5% during his term. However, in January 2012, in the fifth year of his term, France’s sovereign credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s. Under Sarkozy, France’s economic problems, such as low growth, a large foreign trade deficit and excessive public debt, have remained largely unimproved and the purchasing power of the population has been declining.

Aware of the huge market and resource potential of the Asian, African and Latin American countries, Sarkozy has promoted French cooperation with these countries with the aim of promoting economic development through economic and trade cooperation. On 1 April 2011, during his visit to China, Sarkozy met with the then President of the People’s Republic of China, Hu Jintao, during which he said that the French presidency of the G20 could not be achieved without the support of China and that he would work together with the Chinese side on the reform of the international monetary system. In addition to his extensive global diplomatic initiatives, Sarkozy has also launched a number of reform initiatives within Europe. In fact, European issues are at the heart of Sarkozy’s foreign policy. In the diplomatic dimension of France, diplomatic relations with the member states of the European Union and with the United States are at the top of the list. After his election victory, Sarkozy told his European allies that “Europe is my home for life and tonight France is Europe’s strongest backer”. He said that he expected a stronger Europe to emerge. To this end, France has taken “strong” action, with Sarkozy proposing to strengthen European defenses and push for NATO reform.

Sarkozy is the shortest leader of the French Republic, standing only 1.65 meters tall, hence his nickname “Little Napoleon” in the media. He is a sharp-tongued man who has faced the media with sharp judgements on a number of international issues and is not shy about criticizing his political opponents. Sarkozy lost the 2012 election to “François Hollande” and has been accused of a number of things since leaving office, the most notable of which are three cases, namely the alleged receipt of political donations from the head of L’Oréal, Betancourt, during the 2007 presidential election. Sarkozy has also been accused of excessive use of funds in the 2012 presidential election, and he has been accused of bribing Gilbert Aribert, a senior court prosecutor, with his defense lawyer.

 Since then, Sarkozy has been involved in a lengthy criminal trial. On 15 June 2021, Sarkozy’s trial for allegedly overspending on the 2012 presidential campaign began in a Paris court. If convicted, Sarkozy faces up to one year in prison and a fine of up to €3,750. The prosecution claims that Sarkozy’s party squandered nearly €45 million on campaign rallies, twice the €22.5 million required by electoral law, in addition to hiring a public relations firm to conceal the expenses. Sarkozy denied misconduct at the trial, saying that there were no irregularities in the use of campaign funds.

On 17 June 2021, the trial of former French President Sarkozy for allegedly overspending on his 2012 presidential campaign continued in the Paris District Court. The prosecution has requested that Sarkozy be sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, which includes six months’ imprisonment and six months’ probation, and a fine of €3,750. In addition, the prosecution is seeking suspended sentences ranging from 18 months to four years for the remaining 13 defendants.

Sarkozy is not the first leader of France’s Fifth Republic to be criminally charged. His predecessor, President Jacques Chirac, was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison in 2011 for misappropriation of public funds and abuse of public trust. The court found that Chirac, while mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995, misappropriated some $1.8 million in public funds to bribe 21 politicians to run for the French presidency in 1995. During his administration, he used his presidential judicial immunity to exonerate himself from criminal charges, but his punishment was not actually carried out due to medical reasons and his own political influence.

Because Sarkozy pleaded not guilty and appealed his conviction, he has not, as yet, received an actual sentence. On 7 March 2022, the list of 12 candidates for the French presidential election was announced, and Sarkozy was not among them. 24 April 2022, at 20:00, the second round of voting in the French presidential election ended with Macron winning the election and being re-elected.

By JIN Kaiwei

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