Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of corruption – one of four men struggling for decades for leadership of the French Right who are all on trial for criminal offences. The cases, seemingly unrelated, are in fact intertwined and stem from bitter rivalry
The French are well accustomed to seeing their political leaders prosecuted for mishandling other people’s money, but a new record was set last month when two former prime ministers, one former defence minister and one ex-president of the republic all found themselves passing through the criminal process at the same time. All four accused were members of right-wing governments and three of the four were Catholics, one of them reputedly “devout”. The cast comprises Nicolas Sarkozy, president of the republic between 2007 and 2012; François Fillon, prime minister during those years; Edouard Balladur, who had been prime minister in the previous century; and François Léotard, who had been Balladur’s defence minister.
The story apparently starts in the summer of 2016, with François Hollande’s Socialist presidency in its final year. Hollande was preparing to announce that he would run for a second five-year term. Emmanuel Macron, his little-known protégé, had not yet announced that he was going to launch his own campaign. And the right-wing opposition, recently renamed the Republicans, were in the process of choosing their candidate. Sarkozy, who had been defeated by Hollande in 2012, had decided to run again, but he was already encumbered by a string of criminal investigations. Alain Juppé, an experienced former prime minister, was also in contention, but he too had a previous criminal conviction for misuse of public funds. When Macron entered the race, Hollande withdrew and Fillon quickly emerged as the favourite. He was widely regarded as calm, competent and above all honest. He ran as “Mr Clean” and – most unusually – identified as a practising Catholic. He quoted Catholic Social Teaching in his election programme and confirmed that he was a regular Mass-goer.
