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Explainer: France

Sarkozy claims magistrates out to get him in pugnacious TV comeback

Sarkozy is back. Not in the way he had envisaged, not at a time of his choosing, but totally back.

Nicolas Sarkozy, TF1, Wednesday 02 July
Nicolas Sarkozy, TF1, Wednesday 02 July Screen capture/TF1
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After nearly 18 hours of questioning by investigating magistrates culminating in his indictment on charges of corruption and influence-peddling, the former French president returned to his home just before 2 am on Wednesday morning and a few hours later appeared all guns blazing on prime time television in his first television appearance since the night of his election defeat on 6 May 2013.

In an interview recorded during the afternoon, in his offices, and simultaneously broadcast on TF1 television and Europe 1 radio, Sarkozy spent twenty minutes assailing his accusers, creating doubts about their partiality and motives, while denying any wrongdoing.

He said he accepted that, no longer President of France, he was now an ordinary citizen in the eyes of the law and he expected no special treatment. But he insisted that, far from being treated favourably, he was subject to unfairly harsh treatment by the legal system and that investigating magistrates involved in the case were pursuing a political vendetta.

Thursday’s right wing newspaper Le Figaro gives an intriguing glimpse of his 18 hours in police custody on from 8.00 on Tuesday morning.

We learn that the former president was allowed to have a pizza delivered at lunchtime but had no evening meal, and that late in the evening, after 9.30, he was stuck for twenty minutes with two police officers in the dark after the lift taking him to the car park broke down. He was then taken by car to court, where he was later formally charged.

Le Figaro describes the climate in court as “electric”, and reports that according Sarkozy’s allies he refused to speak to the court magistrates except to say “You are political judges. I have nothing to say to you.”

Sarkozy is being investigated in connection with 5 different probes and was acquitted last year in a sixth case.

He had decided to speak out, he said, to defend his image and because the French people had a right to know that “a part of the judicial system is being used for political reasons”.

He insisted forcefully that he had never “betrayed the confidence of the French people”, that he had “nothing to reproach” himself about.

Nicolas Sarkozy arrives with police by car at the financial investigation unit in Paris, 1 July, 2014
Nicolas Sarkozy arrives with police by car at the financial investigation unit in Paris, 1 July, 2014 Reuters/Pascal Rossignol

He reminded viewers that one of the magistrates conducting the investigation over which he was charged this week is a member of the left wing magistrates trade union, the Syndicat de la Magistrature, which was compromised when a “mur des cons” was secretly filmed in its premises by a journalist. The mur (wall) is adorned with pictures of dozens of public figures under the heading “to be knocked down”. Sarkozy’s face is on the wall.

Sarkozy annoyed many in the judiciary while president, with his plans to reform the system. He wanted to abolish the investigating magistrate job and introduce a system closer to that used in many English-speaking countries. Many critics hinted that his reforms were designed to reduce the chances that he himself would be investigated.

He also once commented disparagingly that magistrates were all the same “like peas”. In last night’s interview journalist Jean-Pierre Elkabbach asked him “[you’re saying that] this is the revenge of the peas?”

During the interview Sarkozy failed to give answer specific questions concerning the allegations against him arising from conversations with his lawyer, which were tapped by police.

Instead he turned his fire on his opponents. He accused prime minister Manuel Valls of lying, reminded viewers of recent incidents when Justice Minister Christiane Taubira was caught out apparently lying, and when Michel Sapin, a minister and close friend of François Hollande said on the radio “We will deal with Sarkozy.”

Sarkozy’s performance last night was as combative, energetic and larger than life as ever.

His supporters, enraged at what they see as a concerted attempt to discredit their man by some members of the judiciary, media and politicians, will have been delighted.

Critics see a cynical defence strategy, an attempt to cast suspicion on the impartiality of the judicial system and they will have been incensed.

Ruling Socialist politicians have today vehemently denounced Sarkozy’s attack on the independence of members of the judiciary but otherwise made no comments except to say that justice must run its course.

Political rivals in Sarkozy’s own UMP party have been half-hearted in their expressions of sympathy in recent days, clearly hoping that footage of the former president tired and drawn leaving court in the back of a car in the early hours of the morning will fatally damage his image.

The party is on the brink of catastrophe, close to bankruptcy and embroiled in a huge scandal over the funding of Sarkozy’s 2012 campaign – yet another judicial imbroglio looms and it is unclear so far whether Sarkozy’s will be directly implicated in that one or not.

Many UMP politicians dread Sarkozy’s return to the spotlight, and fear that if he wins the vacant post of leader of the UMP in the autumn, the party will be further impaired.

But the UMP rank and file still worship him. A poll carried out just before his recent visit to police premises showed that 72 per cent of UMP supporters voters want him back in the front seat.

Sarkozy’s abrupt disappearance from the political scene after his election defeat left a huge hole in the French political landscape. Loved and loathed, he is a magnetic personality who inspires fanatical admiration or visceral hatred.

Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

Although he has not taken part in public life since leaving office, he has regularly been pictured in glossy magazines, always with his fashionably unshaven look which symbolised his new persona outside politics. Last night he appeared clean-shaven: a signal of his return to the fray.

But a poll conducted by CSA for BFMTV suggested that 65 % of French voters do not want him back. He’ll take that as a challenge.

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