the previous president of the Republic denies any Libyan financing for his 2007 marketing campaign | EUROtoday

Foreign cash to finance his 2007 marketing campaign? “I didn’t need it” : “the meetings were overflowing”, “the supporters were rushing in”firmly brushed apart, Monday January 13, Nicolas Sarkozy at his trial for corruption in Paris, describing the craze “exceptional” that had sparked his candidacy for the presidential election.

Nicolas Sarkozy has been on trial since January 6 and till April 10, alongside eleven different defendants, for suspicion of financing his 2007 presidential marketing campaign by the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, in alternate for quid professional quo.

On the primary day of the interrogations, President Nathalie Gavarino returns to the political profession of the previous tenant of the Elysée, who mentioned she started, upon her election to the city corridor of Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1983, to construct a profession for herself. “presidential stature”.

Election as deputy in 1988, entry into authorities in 1993, episode of the hostage taking in Neuilly-sur-Seine which made him recognized on the degree ” national “break together with his mentor Jacques Chirac for the unlucky marketing campaign of Edouard Balladur…? The president traces the thread of her rise, till her entry into authorities in 2002, her election on the head of the UMP two years later towards a backdrop of struggle with the Chiraquians, and at last her inauguration for the presidential election in 2007.

“I had the wind in my sails”

“When did you think about financing? »asks Nathalie Gavarino.

“Never, because it’s never been a problem. From the moment I became president of the UMP, the party continued to garner thousands of supporters, there were 335,000 members. I had the wind in my sails, the support was rushing in, the activists, it was at a level that no one has ever achieved, the meetings were overflowing with people”debits the accused, specifying that he even put in on the headquarters of the “first party of France” a ” machine “ which displayed “in real time” new memberships.

At most he went to “fundraising lunches or dinners” organized by “the whole team around Eric Woerth”. “I have never chosen a service provider from my campaign nor met a service provider from my campaign”he provides, wanting to differentiate himself from the outset from the treasurer of his marketing campaign, who was additionally knowledgeable however absent on Monday.

“I was not at the head of a sect or a clan, but of a vast popular movement, my majority went from Philippe de Villiers to Bernard Kouchner, it’s immense! »he insists.

“So you are not tempted to go and ask a foreign head of state for money at the end of 2006? »reminds the magistrate. ” No. One: I had no idea, I’m not crazy. Two: I didn’t need it. Three: there are lots of heads of state that I knew, because I was an interior minister who never stopped traveling”he continues.