By coincidence, two French political figures, former president Nicolas Sarkozy and far-right leader Marine Le Pen, are simultaneously fueling headlines because of their court cases. Sarkozy is undergoing his fifth trial while wearing an electronic bracelet following his sentence of three years in prison, two of which were suspended, for corruption and influence peddling. His current trial, which is not yet over, is a corruption case over suspicions of Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential campaign.
However, the tone of the prosecutor's closing arguments pronounced last week, depicting the former president as the "mastermind" of a corruption pact made with the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and the severity of the sentences they demanded reflect the magnitude of what is stake: The prosecutors requested seven years in prison, a fine €300,000, and a five-year ban on running for elected office.
The second figure, Le Pen, was handed on Monday, March 31, a sentence of four years in prison, two of which suspended and the other two at home with an electronic tag, and a five-year ban on running for elected office, with immediate effect, including during her appeal, on charges of embezzlement. Found guilty of playing a central role in the misappropriation of European Union funds to pay for her party's activities instead of its parliamentary assistants, with damages estimated by the European Parliament at €7 million during the period 2004-2016, her candidacy for the 2027 presidential election is severely compromised.
Nothing connects the two cases to each other. Neither their nature, nor their timelines, nor the political stakes they carry: Sarkozy is entering the twilight of his career, unlike Le Pen, who is playing for her presidential future. However, both have been subject to intense media and political contestation, even though the lengths of the investigations, nearly 10 years in both cases, suggest that the judges did not treat the cases lightly.
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