Sarkozy and justice, the danger of trumping public debate | EUROtoday

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MAudit his judges after a condemnation is a temptation of any human being. Nicolas Sarkozy didn’t escape it by castigating the ” hate “ That would carry him the magistrates of the Paris judicial courtroom which, Thursday, September 25, sentenced him to 5 years in jail with a warrant of delayed impact, within the case of funding of his marketing campaign for the 2007 presidential election. Beaumarchais however made him say to Count Almaviva, in The Barber of Seville : such a bake mustn’t final “Let twenty-four hours”. The former President of the Republic, by castigating, Sunday, September 28, of “Practices if contrary to the rule of law” and by declaring ” France ” Humiliated by judgment, has exceeded the deadline.

Read additionally the evaluation | Article reserved for our subscribers Sarkozy affairs: the French, politicians and judges, an ambivalent relationship

Cursing his judges is one factor, curse justice and throwing her in pasture to her fellow residents is one other. To faux to embark the nation in a campaign towards an establishment whose respect is a basis of civil peace constitutes an irresponsible method. Death threats concentrating on the president of the courtroom who rendered the judgment should not solely “Inadmissible”because the President of the Republic stated a little bit late, however disturbing.

From the United States to Israel through Hungary, we will clearly see what degradations of democracy can lead the contempt for justice and the interference of politics within the judicial sphere. The manner Donald Trump instrumentalizes justice and makes use of his appointment powers to undermine democratic mechanisms, silencing his opponents and selling his pursuits is a warning that Nicolas Sarkozy has no need to listen to. His response nourishes a deadly trumping of the French debate. However, the precept of separation of powers is just not a historic curiosity. Its basis, the concept that an influence not restricted by one other turns into harmful, is scorching topical.

Litigants just like the others

Especially for the reason that legal guidelines which have criminally certified the actions of the previous French president, and supply for the sentence imposed on him, together with the warrant of deposit, had been voted by parliamentarians underneath the strain of a much less and fewer tolerant public opinion not solely towards standard offenders, however in direction of assaults on integrity dedicated by sure political leaders.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, when they arrived at the Paris court on September 25, 2025.

If political-financial scandals not escape at the moment, in precept, to justice, it’s the fruit of a gradual conquest by the magistrates of their independence from politics. Files first focused the left in energy, resulting in the resounding search on the headquarters of the Socialist Party in 1992 by Renaud Van Ruymbeke. Then the correct was additionally questioned. The building of this important counter-power, marked in 2013 by the creation of the nationwide monetary prosecutor’s workplace, represents progress for democracy and equality earlier than the regulation: insurance policies are litigants just like the others.

Admittedly, the prospect of the primary incarceration of a former President of the Republic seems like a thunderclap within the political world. But the promotion of firmness legal guidelines can not solely be price after they apply to others than your self or these of its camp. The assaults on political integrity – on this case a corruption undertaking with a dictator liable for an anti -French terrorist assault – represent a severe type of insecurity for the social pact. Not the courtroom selections that condemn them.

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