REUTERS: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will return to court on Wednesday (March 17) to face trial for allegedly financing his failed 2012 re-election campaign illegally. The "Bygmalion affair" centres on accusations that his party, then known as the UMP, worked with a friendly public relations firm to hide the true cost of his re-election bid.
France sets strict limits on campaign spending. Prosecutors allege that the firm, Bygmalion, invoiced UMP rather than the campaign. They say Sarkozy spent 42.8 million euros on his 2012 presidential bid, almost double the permitted amount. Sarkozy has denied wrongdoing.
The Bygmalion trial comes after Sarkozy was found guilty on March 1 of corruption and influence-peddling and handed a three-year sentence. It was a dramatic fall from grace for a politician who bestrode the national and global stage for five years.
For communications consultant, Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, Sarkozy remains a much-loved figure of right-wing politics, but his influence is waning due to his legal troubles, and especially as people in his circle are also implicated.
Sarkozy has said he will not be a candidate in the 2022 presidential race, but will one day announce who he is supporting. "This is maybe a chance for the right-wing to pass on the throne of Sarkozy to someone who is fresher, more consensus-driven and less tainted," Moreau-Chevrolet said.
Sarkozy is also a formal suspect in an ongoing investigation into allegations of illicit Libyan funding for his first presidential campaign in 2007 - accusations that he has denied. In January, financial prosecutors said they were opening a preliminary investigation into alleged influence-peddling related to activities undertaken by Sarkozy in Russia seven years after he left office.
