The Elysée commissioned some surveys by hand and without competition between 2007 and 2012, at a millionaire cost and which were carried out by companies of two advisers to the then French president
Four former collaborators of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy were sentenced this Friday by the Paris Judicial Court in the so-called ‘case of the Elysée polls’. They were accused of favoritism and embezzlement of public funds.
Claude Guéant, former secretary general of the presidency and Sarkozy’s right-hand man at the Elysée Palace, was sentenced to one year in prison, of which eight months are in prison for being considered guilty of favoritism. He is currently incarcerated for a previous conviction and will appeal the sentence, his lawyer announced.
Patrick Buisson, Sarkozy’s main ideologue, was sentenced to two years in prison without serving time and to pay 150,000 euros. Also convicted in this case were Emmanuel Mignon, Sarkozy’s chief of staff, and Pierre Giacometti, former head of a polling institute commissioned by the Elysée for several opinion polls. Instead, the court acquitted Julien Vaulpré, in charge of carrying out the polls.
The case dates back to the years when Sarkozy was president. The Elysée Palace commissioned some 300 opinion polls between 2007 and 2012. Some of them were awarded by hand, without public competition, and carried out by the companies of two of Sarkozy’s advisers. The surveys cost millions of euros to the public treasury.
presidential immunity
Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France between 2007 and 2012, was not tried in this case because he enjoys presidential immunity. The French Constitution protects him for crimes committed in the exercise of his mandate.
The conservative politician was sentenced last year to one year in prison for corruption and influence peddling in the ‘eavesdropping case or Bismuth case’ and one year in prison for illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign. Sarkozy, who has appealed both sentences, is also charged in another case for the alleged Libyan financing of his electoral campaign with which he won the 2007 presidential elections.
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