Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday “vigorously” denied any wrongdoing as he appealed a one-year jail sentence for illegal campaign financing.
Sarkozy has faced a litany of legal problems since his sole term in office between 2007 and 2012 and has been charged separately with corruption, bribery, influence-peddling and breaking campaign financing laws.
“I vigorously deny any criminal responsibility,” the 68-year-old said at the Paris Court of Appeal.
“I deny, and I hope to demonstrate it, that I ever had any knowledge of fraud, that I ever asked for fraud or even benefited from fraud,” he said at the start of questioning.
The trial began on November 8.
In the so-called “Bygmalion affair”, the former head of state was sentenced to one year in prison in September 2021 on charges that his right-wing party, then known as the UMP, worked with a public relations firm to hide the true cost of his 2012 re-election bid.
Sarkozy accused the firm, Bygmalion, of having enriched itself behind his back.
Sarkozy said he could never have imagined that “there was a system of false invoices.” He dismissed the allegations against him as “lies.”
As his questioning progressed, Sarkozy, who revelled in the nickname of the “hyper-president”, became more animated, nodding and shrugging his shoulders.
He said he did not have the feeling that “I was treated like the Sun King,” in reference to France’s long-serving monarch Louis XIV. “What is this fable?” he asked.
The former head of Bygmalion, Guy Alves, insists that Sarkozy was the “sole beneficiary” of the system of false invoices.
Prosecutors said Sarkozy spent nearly 43 million euros on his 2012 campaign, almost double the permitted amount of 22.5 million euros.
“If I didn’t ask for anything, if I didn’t know about it, where’s the intentional offence?” Sarkozy said pugnaciously.
“I want the truth,” he added.
In October, Sarkozy was charged in a separate witness tampering case relating to alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential win.
Despite his legal woes, Sarkozy is a hugely influential figure on the French right, courted by politicians and writing books that are major publishing events.
In his latest work, Sarkozy said he would like his protege and current Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin to succeed Emmanuel Macron as French president, noting his “evident qualities”.
Sarkozy has also maintained a relationship with Macron and French media have said the pair have dined together on numerous occasions to talk politics.
