In a politically charged and deeply polarised France, the sentencing of a revered but divisive former head of state has turn out to be a defining check of institutional independence. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy, as soon as the standard-bearer of the Gaullist custom, now finds himself on the centre of one of many sternest judicial sanctions ever imposed on a French chief. This isn’t his first encounter with the courts: Sarkozy’s profession has lengthy been shadowed by trials and sprawling investigations that probe the boundaries between political energy and private accountability. To assist us untangle the authorized, ethical, and political implications of this second, we’re joined by Dr. Andrew Smith, historian of recent France and Lecturer in Liberal Arts at Queen Mary College of London. Collectively, we ask: how did a determine who as soon as set a hardline tone for the Fifth Republic turn out to be an emblem of its judicial reckoning?
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