Former Secretary General of the Elysée, Claude Guéant, was sentenced on Tuesday by the Paris Court of Appeal to a one-year suspended prison term for favoritism in the so-called polling affair, according to several media reports.
Claude Guéant, 80, had initially been sentenced to one year in prison, including eight months without parole.
The court found the former Interior Minister guilty of awarding contracts between the Elysée Palace and polling organizations without competitive bidding, benefiting companies led by Patrick Buisson (who passed away in 2023), Pierre Giacometti, as well as the Ipsos institute.
According to the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), approximately EUR4.7 million in public funds were spent on these polls, commissioned between 2007 and 2012 during Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who is currently serving a prison sentence for criminal conspiracy in the so-called Libyan financing case of his 2007 presidential campaign, was heard as a simple witness during the first trial, protected by presidential immunity.
Also implicated in the Libyan case, Claude Guéant has appealed his conviction to six years in prison for criminal conspiracy, passive corruption, influence peddling, forgery, and use of forged documents.
(Written by Zhifan Liu, edited by Blandine Hénault)
