"He will be my political adviser," said Mr. Vincendet, explaining that he had "an immense friendship" and a lot of "mutual respect" for Jérôme Lavrilleux, former deputy director of Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign, and who revealed in 2014 the fraud of the accounts of this campaign, the beginnings of the resounding affair known as "Bygmalion".
In September 2021, Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to one year in prison in this case.
Jérôme Lavrilleux, sentenced to three years including one suspended, had quickly announced his intention to appeal.
"I am against the double penalty", assured Mr. Vincendet, who has known "for more than 15 years" Mr. Lavrilleux, ex-director of cabinet of Jean-François Copé when the new deputy was himself an intern there .
"I know his qualities, he is one of the best if not the best," he added.
Before joining Jean-François Copé then Nicolas Sarkozy, Jérôme Lavrilleux had been director of cabinet for nine years at the town hall of Saint-Quentin and general counsel.
Elected to the European Parliament in 2014, he had sat for five years as a member of the EPP (European People's Party), although he resigned from the UMP in 2014.
Withdrawn in the green Périgord where he managed two lodgings, he had created in 2020 a small company in "citizen communication advice".
© 2022 AFP