Sarkozy behind bars: how a powerful elite seeks to portray the ex-president as a victim
At just before 9.40am on October 21st Nicolas Sarkozy entered the gates of La Santé prison in Paris to begin the five-year jail term he was given after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy in the Libyan election funding scandal, a first for a former French president. But current president Emmanuel Macron received Sarkozy at the Élysée while justice minister Gérald Darmanin has said he will visit him in prison.
And French business groups Accor and Lagardère groups have rallied to his support, while television channels have largely glossed over the seriousness of the offences. As Fabrice Arfi argues in this op-ed article, the jailing of Nicolas Sarkozy lays bare, as never before, the panic of a small but powerful elite that desires nothing less than the return of pre-French Revolution privilege.
