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Posted (edited)

Get your shit together France. He cannot appeal and avoid the sentence.

Former French President Sarkozy handed 5-year jail term

Quote

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in jail on Thursday for criminal conspiracy over attempts to raise campaign funds from Libya and will soon become the first former president of France to serve time in prison.

The sentence was harsher than many expected and marked a spectacular downfall for Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012. He will spend time in jail even if he appeals the ruling, which he said he would do.

As he exited the courtroom, Sarkozy, visibly moved, expressed his anger at what he said was a “scandalous” ruling.

“If they absolutely want me to sleep in jail, I will sleep in jail, but with my head held high,” he told reporters, adding that he was innocent. “I will not apologise for something I didn’t do.”

“What happened today ... is of extreme gravity in regard to the rule of law, and for the trust one can have in the justice system,” he said of the ruling, as his model and singer-songwriter wife Carla Bruni stood by him.

Sarkozy was found guilty of criminal conspiracy over efforts by close aides to procure funds for his 2007 presidential bid from Libya during the rule of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

He was acquitted by the Paris court of all other charges, including corruption and receiving illegal campaign financing.

Sarkozy will go to jail
However, the prison sentence is enforceable immediately, with the judge saying Sarkozy would have just a short period to put his affairs in order before prosecutors call on him to head to jail. That should happen within a month.

“We were shocked because when we started hearing the decision being read out, we thought his innocence would be recognised,” one of his lawyers, Jean-Michel Darrois, told reporters. “We hope the appeals court will see things more clearly and will recognise his innocence.”

Sarkozy, who has always denied the charges, was accused of making a deal with Gaddafi in 2005, when he was France’s interior minister, to obtain campaign financing in exchange for supporting the then-isolated Libyan government on the international stage.

The judge said there was no proof that Sarkozy made such a deal with Gaddafi, nor that money that was sent from Libya reached Sarkozy’s campaign coffers, even if the timing was “compatible” and the paths the money went through were “very opaque”.

But she said Sarkozy was guilty of criminal conspiracy between 2005 and 2007 for having let close aides get in touch with people in Libya to try and obtain campaign financing. From May 2007, he was president and covered by presidential immunity, the court added.

This was the second time this year that a French court handed down a ruling with immediate effect on a major political figure.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen was convicted in March of embezzling EU funds and given an immediate five-year ban on running for office.

Le Pen was prompt to react to Sarkozy’s sentencing, saying it was “a grave danger” that judges were opting for immediately enforceable rulings and not waiting for appeals.

Reactions among French politicians were mixed, with several on the right rushing to give support and criticise what they said was a biased ruling, while on the left, some welcomed the ruling as proof of the independence of the judiciary.

Vincent Brengarth, lawyer for economic justice campaign group Sherpa, which was party to the Libya trial, also welcomed the ruling. “This confirms we have an independent justice system that can be brave,” he said.

Sarkozy’s legal woes
Despite his legal battles and having his Legion of Honour, France’s highest distinction, stripped in June, Sarkozy remains an influential figure on the French political stage.

He recently met with his former protege, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, and has also lent credibility to Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), saying the far-right, anti-immigrant party now forms part of the “republican arc.”

Sarkozy has faced several legal battles since leaving office.

Last year, France’s highest court upheld his conviction for corruption and influence peddling, ordering him to wear an electronic tag for a year, a first for a former French head of state. The tag has now been removed.

Also last year, an appeals court confirmed a separate conviction for illegal campaign financing over his failed re-election bid in 2012. A final ruling from France’s highest court is expected on that case next month.

 

Edited by Thetexashammer
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Posted
2 hours ago, Thetexashammer said:

and will soon become the first former president of France to serve time in prison.

Better than being executed or exiled I guess.

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Posted
1 hour ago, UpperWestside said:

What is it with other countries like France and Brazil having a legal system that isn’t letting politicians walk on major charges like this? I wonder what it’s like living in a place where the rule of law actually means something.

Is it your opinion that other countries don't act like vindictive children when their party is in control? 

 

Tangentially related from the BBC:

Why 'the most controversial queen in history' was so hated
8 days ago
Deborah Nicholls-Lee
 

Once the most despised woman in Europe, Marie Antoinette was vilified as an empty-headed libertine, a conspirator and a reckless spendthrift – and then publicly executed. Now a major exhibition interrogates some of the myths that surround her.

"All eyes will be on you," cautioned Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, in April 1770, as her daughter, the 14-year-old Archduchess Maria Antonia prepared to marry the future King Louis XVI of France at the Palace of Versailles. Yet the scrutiny endured by Marie Antoinette, as the Archduchess was later known, was far crueller than anticipated. She was vilified as a libertine, a conspirator and a reckless spendthrift, whose exorbitant lifestyle was bankrupting the country – accusations that would precipitate the French Revolution and lead to a rare and shocking spectacle: the public execution of a queen.

Our fascination with Marie Antoinette has never waned, but increasingly her story is being questioned. Did she deserve to be despised, or was she a martyr caught between conflicting interests and destroyed by lies? For Dr Sarah Grant, the curator of Marie Antoinette Style, opening at the V&A on 20 September, she is the "most fashionable, scrutinised and controversial queen in history". Marking the 270th anniversary of the birth of this mould-breaking but maligned figure, the show celebrates her sense of style, and interrogates some of the myths associated with her.

One such myth is her apocryphal "let them eat cake" comment, a brattish response to devastating bread shortages. Attributed to "a great princess" in Rousseau's Confessions, written in 1765 when Marie Antoinette was aged 10 and still in Austria, it cannot have come from her. More fake news appears in the form of the "diamond necklace affair" (1785-6), in which a necklace of more than 600 diamonds was falsely ordered in the queen's name, solidifying her reputation for excess despite her vindication at trial. A replica, along with the Sutherland Necklace, reportedly containing stones from the original, features in the exhibition.
The young queen's lavish lifestyle was certainly salt in the wounds of the starving poor – she found diversion in extravagant parties, gambling and fashion

Other items speak to her legacy as a tastemaker: opulent furnishings from the French Revival (1800-1890), for example, that emulated elements of her style, and frilly pink shoes from Sofia Coppola's Oscar-winning Marie Antoinette (2006), designed by Manolo Blahnik, who confesses in the catalogue's foreword that he remains "enraptured by everything about her".

The young queen's lavish lifestyle was certainly salt in the wounds of the starving poor. Bound to a weak-minded and rather dull husband, who was more interested in hunting than in her, and was for seven years medically unable to consummate their marriage, she found diversion in extravagant parties, gambling and fashion. Her fancifully decorated dresses with vast structural panniers, crowned with towering ornamental hairstyles, were widely copied at the time, and later inspired pop stars such as Madonna and Rihanna, and fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Dior and Moschino.
'Madame Déficit'

The moniker of "Madame Déficit", however, was unjustified. Though she spent less than the king's brothers, and was just one of a series of profligate French monarchs, the foreign queen became a convenient scapegoat for the French government's handling of funds. "It's the spending on wars that is actually what bankrupts France, certainly not the money that Marie Antoinette is spending," Grant tells the BBC. "Her wardrobe budget is the equivalent today of around $1 million, but France spent $11.25 billion on just the American War of Independence."

Even scaling back her spending made her new enemies. "When she stops wearing silks, the silk industry is in uproar because their livelihood is threatened," says Grant. And when, in 1783, she tried to project a different image with a portrait of her in the more casual "country" attire that she would popularise, it was swiftly replaced by something more elaborate and formal. "She is expected to create a regal spectacle," Grant continues. "That is how the monarchy maintains its authority."

The folklore surrounding this early modern celebrity also overlooks her philanthropy. She recycled her wardrobe each year, sharing it between her staff; and she adopted several children, including Jean Amilcar, originally from Senegal, who she released from slavery. She also "turned down offers of expensive gifts from her husband" and "gave generously to charities", author Melanie Burrows (née Clegg), who has written widely on the period, tells the BBC. Far from being the "empty-headed idiot she is often portrayed as", argues Burrows, she was "well-intentioned, generous and kind-hearted".
Marie Antoinette was considered too prominent, too vivacious, and too willing to use her charm to meddle in political affairs

Presented to the French court as a peace offering after years of hostility with Austria, Marie Antoinette had split allegiances that mired her in suspicions − not all unfounded − that she shared military secrets with Austria. She was deemed indifferent to the French people, and derogatory references to her as "L'Autri-chienne" (a wordplay on the French for both Austrian and bitch) exemplify the distrust that fuelled public feeling.

Unlike a king, a queen had no official power and was meant to remain in the background. Marie Antoinette was considered too prominent, too vivacious and too willing to use her charm to meddle in political affairs, secretly lobbying ministers and opposing the constitutional reforms the country cried out for. As far as her enemies were concerned, she needed to be brought down. Libellous pamphlets circulated, some pornographic, accusing her of promiscuity (Count Axel von Fersen is, in fact, her only known lover), orgies, lesbian relations and even incest.

The gossip was "all driven by misogyny", argues Grant, adding that "a lot of the myths that persisted... arose in the 19th Century when her biographies [were] written by men". According to Burrows, the queen was actually quite prudish. She rarely drank, she says, engaged in only "very mild flirtation" and "hated to be seen naked even by her own maids". Yet these tropes persist. In Marie Antoinette's World – Intrigue, Infidelity, and Adultery in Versailles (2020), Will Bashor speculates that her chronic uterine bleeding was caused by venereal disease. But he also argues that she was "emotionally abused", "bored" and "neglected", and though he finds her guilty of seeking pleasure outside her marriage, concludes that, for him at least, she was "forgiven".  

In reality, "she was a devoted mother," Dr Laura O'Brien, Associate Professor of Modern European History at Northumbria University in the UK, tells the BBC, referencing the "gentler and more emotional connection" the queen had with her children, in contrast to her own upbringing. She was the first French queen to breastfeed, and to dress – as seen in the rejected portrait – in a manner suited to parenthood and life at her rural retreat.

The continuing fascination with Europe's most loathed queen is also linked to the tragedy of her story: a child bride from a royal dynasty forced into an impossible situation, and ultimately reduced to a tragic figure in a white chemise, her hair shorn short, carried by cart to her death. For revolutionaries, she became a symbol of everything France needed to change, and her execution in 1793 attempted to cleanse the country of the worst of the Ancien Régime.

Whether or not Marie Antoinette's death was justified, it failed to stifle her influence. A trend emerged for short "porcupine" haircuts and blood-red chokers suggestive of the guillotine's cut. She was detested by those who believed the stories surrounding her, but she was also widely – and enduringly – admired. "For me, this exhibition is another dream fulfilled," Blahnik commented in a recent interview. "The re-vindication of Marie Antoinette."  

Marie Antoinette Style is at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London from 20 September 2025 to 22 March 2026. The accompanying book is published by V&A Publishing.

 

 

Posted
4 hours ago, Bevo said:

Is it your opinion that other countries don't act like vindictive children when their party is in control? 

 

Who is acting like a vindictive child, now?

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Posted (edited)

That was my point - this has been going on at least since watergate (as far back as you and I go) and keeps getting worse each year. It’s almost like observing a meeting between two large groups of opposing councils without a mediator - and then bringing those same groups back together each year. It’s like Lord of the Flies, man.

Edited by Bevo
Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, Bevo said:

That was my point - this has been going on at least since watergate (as far back as you and I go) and keeps getting worse each year. It’s almost like observing a meeting between two large groups of opposing councils without a mediator - and then bringing those same groups back together each year. It’s like Lord of the Flies, man.

Wait, you think Watergate was a product of vindictive political opposition?  

I'd say this nation has been relatively free of criminal vindictiveness upon the transfer of power.  To the point that criminal consequences were avoided when they should not have been.

Until very, very recently.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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Posted
19 minutes ago, YChang said:

Seriously, what a weird premise to use. 

I just find that kind of stuff interesting. The same sort of thing happened to Cristopher Columbus where he was vilified because he wasn’t from their country and likely wasn’t born Catholic.

Posted
9 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

I will console Carla Bruni.

Better hurry, she's facing a Caged Heat scenario herself.

 

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/07/10/carla-bruni-sarkozy-charged-with-witness-tampering-in-husbands-illicit-campaign-financing-

 

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Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was given preliminary charges Tuesday for involvement in allegedly pressuring a witness who accused ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy of receiving illegal campaign financing from Libya.

Former supermodel and French first lady Bruni-Sarkozy was placed under judicial supervision on Tuesday, which included a ban on contact with all those involved in the proceedings, with the exception of her husband, according to officials.

The charges against Bruni-Sarkozy include witness tampering and participation in a criminal association with an attempt to commit fraud in efforts to deceive magistrates investigating her husband on suspicion of receiving illegal funds during his 2007 presidential election campaign, the official said.

 

 

Posted
5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Wait, you think Watergate was a product of vindictive political opposition?  

i think the President was a Republican and Congress was Democrat and I think it left bad blood between the two parties that spilled over to later presidencies.

Posted
10 minutes ago, Bevo said:

i think the President was a Republican and Congress was Democrat and I think it left bad blood between the two parties that spilled over to later presidencies.

The Senate voted 77-0 to convene the investigation.  I wasn't the most seasoned observer at the time, but I recall about zero partisan political rancor over that.  Two Republican Attorneys General resigned rather than do Nixon's bidding.

 

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Posted

Just like you won't find hardly any Nixon defenders today, there weren't many in 1973.

There sure as fuck weren't a bunch of Republicans screaming wEaPoNizAtion while drumming up charges against Jimmy Carter.

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Posted
1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

Just like you won't find hardly any Nixon defenders today, there weren't many in 1973.

There sure as fuck weren't a bunch of Republicans screaming wEaPoNizAtion while drumming up charges against Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter.  Who had to fucking bail on his peanut farm.

And now, we have a POTUS (1) openly profiteering directly from the office, and (2) getting fanatical support from the very kind of folks who insisted that Carter couldn't keep the peanut farm.

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Posted

And, before the obstruction of justice part, Nixon's basic crime was knowledge of a relatively petty burglary.

Something Trumpists would proclaim as trumped up charges.

But it was the tawdriness of the basic crime that made it so disgusting.  And then the cover-up, that displayed Nixon's basic corruption.

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