Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy faces a new investigation in relation to his failed re-election bid in 2012.
Prosecutors in Paris have launched a probe into why Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party last year paid the 363,615-euro fine inflicted on him after his 2012 campaign exceeded set spending limits for candidates.
In September 2013 Sarkozy, who has recently returned to front-line politics, was ordered by France's Constitutional Council to pay both the 363,615-euro fine plus a further 153,000-euro penalty.
This additional sum was the refund of an advance for campaigning expenses that was allocated to him at the start of the campaign - and paid from the public purse.
But instead of Sarkozy picking up the bill himself it was paid by the UMP party, which had just raised around 11 million euros in a fund-raising event known as the 'Sarkathon'.
Most of that money went to pay back the 10.6 million euros of public money the party had received as an advance for the 2012 campaign – this cash had to be returned because the spending limit had been exceeded.
It is the decision by the UMP to pay Sarkozy's fine that has now prompted prosecutors to ask the police anti-corruption squad, the Office anticorruption de la police judiciaire based at Nanterre, west of Paris, to open an investigation on Monday October 6th into “breach of trust”, “complicity” in breach of trust and “receiving the proceeds” of that breach of trust.
Though the UMP took legal advice before paying Sarkozy's fine, the law appears clear: a candidate punished by the Constitutional Council must themselves “pay the public purse”, not their party.
Unlike the so-called Bygmalion affair – which is a separate investigation arising out of the same 2012 election campaign – this latest probe directly targets Nicolas Sarkozy, as he was the person who was personally liable for the election fine.