French press review 20 September 2018

French former president Nicolas Sarkozy is smiling on the front page of Le Monde. How long the smile lasts will depend on a judicial decision to be handed down later today by a French appeals court. Sarkozy has asked for the case in which he is alleged to have overspent by 20 million euros the legal limit for a presidential candidate to be taken out of the criminal courts. Only one of the two judges in the original case was in favour of subjecting the former president to a criminal trial. Sarkozy has already had his campaign accounts fine combed and declared invalid. He had to pay a fine of 360,000 euros. But that was before the so-called Bygmalion affair came to light, with a front company allegedly charging Sarkozy’s party for events which never took place, and then returning the money to the campaign coffers. Sarko’s defence team say the figures are completely exaggerated and that their client knew nothing at all about the alleged re-cycling of funds. They say the case is stupid and should be thrown out. Even if Sarkozy gets off the hook today, and that’s anything but sure, there are no fewer than nine other… Read full this story

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