Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy during his appeal trial in the Libyan funding affair, Paris, April 7, 2026. THOMAS SAMSON/AFP
Nicolas Sarkozy appeared calmer, more serious and more solemn than in the court of first instance. At his appeal trial over suspicions that Libya funded his 2007 presidential campaign on Tuesday, April 7, he spent eight long hours responding to the judge's questions, with great courtesy and at times a touch of obsequiousness. The former president had an answer for everything, claimed to know nothing, and flung the occasional acerbic remark at his co-defendants. His responses were often "a little surprising," in the words of the skeptical judge.
As always, Judge Olivier Géron started from afar, gradually tightening his grip. He delved at length into the story of Sarkozy's rise to power, a topic the defendant himself recounted with self-satisfaction, evoking "suspended breath during the campaign," rallies where "the room pulses in time with you" and "those few dizzying minutes" upon arriving at the Elysée presidential palace. "A president of the Republic is no longer a politician. He is a president. It's the story of a lifetime," the defendant modestly concluded.
