Born Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa in a Paris suburb, has climbed the social ladder with ambition and ease within his life. Nicolas Sarközy, as most people know him, attended the Institut d’Études Politiques (Paris Institute of Political Studies) and then went on to the University of Paris for a law degree. Since then, he has made a career for himself in the French political sphere. Beginning as mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1983, he held this position for almost two full decades. Subsequently, he became the budget minister and official spokesman of the government in 1993. Later on, becoming an interior minister from 2002 to 2004. Almost immediately after leaving that post, he was promoted to finance minister and then the president of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party. Finally, he was sworn in as the French president on May 16, 2007, and was in office until 2012.
During his time in office, he made some surprising additions to the positions surrounding him. According to Britannica, some of these included France’s first female finance minister, Christine Lagarde, and “the first full cabinet member of North African origin.” In addition to this, he made quite a name for himself when he and his wife aided in “the release of six Bulgarian medics (charged with infecting children with HIV) who had been held in Libya since 1999.” More positive press arose after the Lisbon Treaty of 2008 and the Mediterranean Union.
The most notable charge being that he was found guilty of “trying [to] bribe a judge with a prestigious job” in Monaco to “get [inside] information about an investigation against” him. The judge who almost received the position was Gilbert Azibert. A lifelong friend, Thierry Herzog is said to have had a hand in this process. According to records, there were several phone calls between the two men regarding the position in Monaco and the reward for it. Both men involved were found guilty as well. However, there are some loopholes within the case. Under French law, an intended bribe is still illegal, yet in this case, it was the reason for charges to be under review. Scott Neuman at NPR expressed the case in detail, specifically about the wiretapping of the phone calls between Sarközy and his lawyer and friend Herzog concerning the bribe of the judge. Sarközy’s statement on the issue was: “Never. Never abused my influence, alleged or real,” he told the court. “What right do they have to drag me through the mud like this for six years? Is there no rule of law?”
Nikolas Sarközy has formally been sentenced to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence; this is essentially probation in the French court system. Maybe this will be a new precedent high-level officials are held to, even when they are out of office.
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