Elysée polls: six people, including Claude Guéant, judged from today

Gwladys Laffitte 7:28 am, October 18, 2021

Claude Guéant and five relatives of former President Nicolas Sarkozy will be tried from Monday before the Paris Criminal Court.

The trial should last a month and the defendants appear in particular for "favoritism", "embezzlement of public funds by negligence" or "concealment of favoritism", "embezzlement of public funds" in the so-called "Elysee polls" case. ".

They face between 2 and 5 years in prison.

The court will have to decide: have companies been favored by the Elysee Palace to carry out polls under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, in defiance of public procurement rules?

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65% margin

Among nearly 300 surveys ordered by the Elysee between 2007 and 2009, 235 were ordered from the company of Patrick Buisson, former adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy. According to investigators, they were sold with a 65% margin, a profit of 1.4 million euros for the company. According to the anti-corruption association Anticor, it is an agreement signed with the Elysee Palace that governed this agreement, in violation of the rules of public spending.

Maître Jérôme Karsenti is the lawyer for the anti-corruption association: "It said: these surveys, you can order them on the topics you want, on the quantity you want. It was a blank check that was given to Patrick Buisson. Behind in reality arises the deeper question of the instrumentalisation by the Head of State of this public money for the purposes of communication and electoral propaganda. And it is behind the subtitle of this file . "

According to the defense, these contracts signed with trusted companies were part of a tradition at the Elysee and therefore escaped the rules of public spending.

Covered by presidential immunity, Nicolas Sarkozy is not questioned.

He is called as a witness, but is not required to appear in court.