Paris (AFP)

The trial of five former relatives of Nicolas Sarkozy, including the former secretary general of the presidency Claude Guéant, opened Monday in Paris in the affair of the "Elysee polls" in the absence of the former Head of State, covered in this case by his presidential immunity.

Almost a decade after the end of Sarkozy's five-year term (2007-2012), the defendants, then members of his close guard, found themselves in the early afternoon in front of the criminal court.

Nicknamed the "cardinal", former minister Claude Guéant, 76, rimless glasses and gray hair, greeted Patrick Buisson, the influential adviser from the far right, 72, who passed the door of his approach slightly arched.

After two hours of procedural debates, the court suspended the hearing and will rule on Tuesday on a priority issue of constitutionality (QPC) and on the possible use of public force to testify Nicolas Sarkozy, cited by the Anticor association.

Protected in this case by the criminal immunity guaranteed by the Constitution, the former president was never prosecuted or heard and he indicated, in a letter read on Monday by the president of the court, that he "did not hear in no way defer to this summons ".

Already quoted during the judicial investigation in 2016, he had refused to come.

The examining magistrate then considered that forcing him to do so would be "disproportionate".

Claude Guéant, former secretary general of the Elysee Palace under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, is tried at the Paris Criminal Court in the case of the "ELysée polls", October 18, 2021 STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

"His testimony is essential to understand" the "system" then in force at the Elysee Palace, pleaded Monday Me Jérôme Karsenti, Anticor's lawyer.

"The position of the investigating judge" was "a position of common sense and wisdom", simply declared the representative of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), specifying "to rely" on the court.

- "Poll addiction" -

Claude Guéant's counsel also defended a QPC on the extent of the president's immunity which, according to him, extends to his secretary general.

Sentenced to one year in prison in March in the "eavesdropping" affair, Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to another year in prison in the Bygmalion case at the end of September.

Sanctions he appealed.

The case judged from Monday revealed the Sarkozy presidency's appetite for all polls, from the president's popularity to his reforms or topical issues, including his political rivals or the image of his new companion Carla Bruni, whom he married in 2008.

A "poll addiction, a short-lived behavior, to the GPS of the polls", had denounced in 2012 the elected ecologist Raymond Avrillier, who obtained from the administrative justice documents of the presidential palace and will testify at the trial.

Former President Nicolas Sarkozy leaves his home early in the morning, October 18, 2021, while five of his relatives are on trial in the case of the "Elysee polls" at the Paris Criminal Court STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

For a month, the court must consider consulting and polling contracts concluded with the companies of Patrick Buisson and political scientist Pierre Giacometti, as well as orders placed directly by the Elysee to institutes, in particular Ipsos.

In total 7.5 million euros of public money, which have not been the subject of publicity or call for tenders and are considered by the PNF as favoritism.

- Diversions -

The reading of the offenses was, Monday, the longest for Patrick Buisson: tried for concealment of favoritism, he also appears for embezzlement of public funds, in particular because of two contracts signed with his companies: Publifact and Publi-Opinion.

Paid 10,000 euros per month for an advisory mission, he could also deliver polls as he wished: between 2007 and 2009, the prosecution counted 235, bought by the Elysee and then sold to the media with margins of 65 at 71%, for a profit of 1.4 million euros.

Fallen out of favor on the right in 2014 after the revelation of clandestine recordings of conversations at the Elysee Palace, Patrick Buisson is finally prosecuted for abuse of corporate assets, suspected of having incurred nearly 180,000 euros in personal expenses for his companies.

Another regular at the Elysee Palace under Nicolas Sarkozy, the former co-director of Ipsos Pierre Giacometti is implicated for concealment of favoritism because of a "strategy consulting" contract signed in 2008.

For having organized the signing of these contracts, Claude Guéant is judged for favoritism and embezzlement of public funds by negligence, like Emmanuelle Mignon, former chief of staff.

The former adviser "opinion" of the Elysee Julien Vaulpré appears for favoritism in connection, this time, with the polls ordered directly from the institutes.

Ipsos is also being sued.

© 2021 AFP