Chirac to Sarkozy: Former French presidents and their convictions and scandals

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday became the second head of state to be convicted and sentenced.

A court in Paris convicted Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy to use millions of euros from Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign and sentenced him to five years in jail. This is his second conviction. He was previously convicted in 2021 for trying to bribe a judge in 2014.

Before Sarkozy, former President Jacques Chirac was convicted of embezzlement in 2011, former Prime Minister Francois Fillon was convicted of embezzlement and misuse of public funds to pay his wife and children. Moreover, Francois Mitterrand has seen his legacy tarnished as a host of illegalities took place on his watch and many of his aides were convicted for taking part in those acts.

Here are the four convictions and scandals at the highest levels of the country.

Nicolas Sarkozy

Sarkozy served as the President of France from 2017-22.

Sarkozy has been convicted in two cases. Initially, he was convicted in 2021 for trying to bribe the judge in 2014. He was not jailed in the case.

In this case, Sarkozy also tried to acquire a file related to his second case of embezzlement of Libyan money for election financing.

In the second case, Sarkozy was convicted on Thursday (September 25, 2025) in a case of criminal conspiracy to use millions of euros from Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign — the election he won to become the president.

However, Sarkozy was acquitted of all other charges, including corruption and receiving illegal campaign financing.

Initially, the case against him stated that Sarkozy, when he was France’s interior minister, provided diplomatic supported to Gaddafi in exchange millions of euros to get elected as president in 2007. That would have been very ironic as France under him was part of the United Nations (UN)-approved military intervention in Libya in 2011 that led to the collapse of Gaddafi’s decadeslong rule and led to his eventual capture and killing by rebel forces.

However, the verdict said that there was no proof that Sarkozy made such a deal with Gaddafi and there was no evidence that money that was sent from Libya reached Sarkozy’s campaign, according to Reuters.

The court, however, convicted Sarkozi for the criminal conspiracy for having let close aides get in touch with people in Libya to try and obtain campaign financing, as per the news agency.

Jacques Chirac

Chirac was the president from 1995-2007. Sarkozy was his successor.

Chirac was convicted in 2011 of corruption. He was convicted over the creation of ghost jobs on the payroll of the city of Paris and the nearby town of Nanterre for members of Chirac’s Rally for the Republic (RPR) party, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

Francois Fillon

Fillion was the prime minister from 2007-12. His tenure coincided with the presidential term of Sarkozy.

Fillon was convicted of embezzlement and misuse of public funds in the ‘Penelopegate’ scandal that involve the illegal payment to his wife, Penelope Fillon, for a fake government job. He was sentenced to a suspended term of four years.

Francois Mitterrand

Mitterrand was the president from 1981 to 1995. He was personally not convicted but he presided over a presidential administration that engaged in a host of illegalities, including illegal wiretapping of journalists and activists from the presidential palace. Many of his aides were convicted for illegal wiretapping.

Later, Mitterrand’s legacy was further tarnished as his son, Charles Pasqua, was convicted for the illegal sale of arms to Angola during the country’s civil war in the 1990s, according to The Independent.

Pasqua was an ally-turned-rival of Chirac, who was himself convicted of corruption in 2011.