Former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy has been convicted of illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 re-election bid, after the country’s highest court rejected his final appeal.
The decision comes just two weeks after Sarkozy’s release from prison pending an appeal in another campaign financing case.
Sarkozy, 70, was incarcerated for 20 days in Paris’ La Santé prison, after judges convicted him of scheming to get secret financing from Libya in his winning campaign for the French presidency in 2007. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Sarkozy, who was the country’s rightwing President between 2007 and 2012, was convicted of hiding illegal overspending for his unsuccessful re-election campaign that was shaped by vast American-style rallies.
The case was labelled the “Bygmalion” affair because of the name of the events company that organised Sarkozy’s elaborate and artfully filmed stadium gigs in front of thousands of flag-waving fans when he was fighting for re-election. He ultimately lost to the Socialist party’s François Hollande.
In a 2021 trial, the state prosecutor had highlighted Sarkozy’s “couldn’t care less” attitude in demanding one rally a day in the form of vast “American-style shows” and allowing costs to rise substantially above the legal limit for a presidential election campaign.
The prosecution said that accountants had warned Sarkozy he was about to pass the official €22.5m spending cap but that he insisted on holding more events to fend off Hollande, who was gaining ground.
In the end, Sarkozy’s campaign spending came to at least €42.8m, nearly double the legal limit, prosecutors said. Sarkozy, who denied all wrongdoing, lodged an appeal process that took several years.
France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, which focuses on whether the law has been applied correctly rather than on the facts of the case, has now upheld an earlier ruling, making Sarkozy’s conviction final.
Sarkozy’s conviction is now considered definitive by French law, with no further appeal possible.
The Court of Cassation said in a statement today, Wednesday, November 26, 2025 that it “upholds the appeals’ court decision convicting a presidential candidate, his campaign manager and two Directors of the political party supporting him for illegal campaign financing.”
Sarkozy, who was released from prison earlier this month in connection with a separate conviction, will now have to serve his sentence.
He had been sentenced on appeal to a one-year prison term, half of which was suspended. That six-month prison term can be served through means such as wearing an electronic tag, without going to jail.
Sarkozy Appeals Recent Conviction
Sarkozy has faced a series of legal challenges since leaving office. He is appealing against his conviction for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain election campaign funds for his 2007 presidential attempt from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy was cleared of three other charges, including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealing the embezzlement of public funds.
That is the conviction that in October resulted in him going to in La Santé prison in Paris, where he spent 20 days, an experience he described as “gruelling” and a “nightmare.” He was released on November 10, 2025. Sarkozy’s appeal trial in the Libya case is scheduled to run from March 16 to June 3, 2025.
Sarkozy’s criminal records already register a definitive conviction for corruption and influence peddling while he was the country’s head of state. Last year, the Court of Cassation upheld an appeals court decision that had found Sarkozy guilty of trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about legal proceedings in which he was involved. The case was revealed through wiretapped phone conversations during the Libya financing investigation.
Meanwhile, Sarkozy is publishing a book on December 10, 2025, about his recent time behind bars, titled “Diary of a Prisoner.”
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