Nicolas Sarkozy, condemned in the Bygmalion affair: “People are not fooled by anything”

THE he ex-head of state, who announced that he was appealing this decision, arrived shortly before 11:00 am in a bookseller in the 16th arrondissement of Paris where around 200 people were waiting for him asking him to “hold on”, “courage”, ” we are here “. Among them was the lawyer Francis Szpiner, mayor of the 16th arrondissement.

“It is very moving and at the same time very reassuring about the state of mind of the country. , on the fact that people are not fooled by anything (…) they understood ”, commented Mr. Sarkozy in front of the numerous television cameras on the spot, while starting to dedicate his book“ Walks ”(Ed. Herscher).

This was his first public expression since his conviction. In a message on social networks Thursday, he denounced “an injustice” and promised to go “to the end” to “continue this fight so necessary for truth and for justice”.

Asked on Saturday about Prime Minister Jean Castex, who had shown him his “friendship” and “affection” on a “personal basis” on Thursday, the former President of the Republic (2007-2012) declared : “It made me very happy, it doesn’t surprise me about him, I am very sensitive to it, I have received thousands and thousands” of messages of support. On behalf of Emmanuel Macron too, asked a journalist? “Ask him, it’s not for me to say,” replied Mr. Sarkozy.

Regarding his actual conviction, he insisted: “this which I think is anecdotal, what people think is much more serious. I am not necessarily the most objective “to comment.

In the queue, Benoît Meurisse, a fifty-something, felt that” it was quickly done ‘accuse people. There are excesses it is clear, but from there to condemn it! “. For him, Nicolas Sarkozy is above all “a compass”. “He acquired a certain wisdom, an experience of power. He has become a wise man. “

A little further on, a group of four law students, two boys and two girls aged 17 to 20, were there because they” like a lot »This« last big cador of the right », which makes them« a little nostalgic ».

« We want to take a picture with him because he is a former President, and not the least ”, explained one of them, Barthélémy, recalling that Mr. Sarkozy was“ presumed innocent since he appealed ”against his conviction.

In March, Nicolas Sarkozy had become the first former president of the Fifth Republic to be sentenced to prison – three years, one of which was closed – for corruption and influence peddling, in another case, the one called “Eavesdropping”.

He also appealed, thus suspending de facto this sentence.