Le Canard Enchainé has revealed that Cecilia Sarkozy was paid as a parliamentary assistant but questioned whether she did any work
Credit: KARIM JAAFAR/AFP
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s ex-wife Cecilia was paid as a parliamentary assistant in 2002 but did no work to justify her salary, according to a report in investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaîné.
The 65-year old Right-winger ex-leader’s entourage vehemently denied allegations she was paid to do nothing, which resemble those made in 2017 against the wife of former French prime minister Francois Fillon.
According to Le Canard, Cecilia Sarkozy — now Attias — was employed as an assistant to the woman who stood in for Mr Sarkozy as MP from 2002 when he vacated his parliamentary post to become interior minister.
Payslips seen by the magazine allegedly suggest that Cecilia, 63, was paid €3,100 euros (£2,780)at current rates) for the 76-hours-per-month part-time job.
"Not an article, no report, not one of the many books devoted to the former first lady mentions her work as a parliamentary assistant," the weekly wrote.
The report quoted Cecilia telling a TV interviewer in 2002: "I am not paid, the work I do with my husband is voluntary."
Cecilia Sarkozy left her husband while he was still president
Credit: THOMAS COEX/AFP
She had an office at the interior ministry but did not possess one in the city hall of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the town where her ex-husband was long mayor and which had been given as her workplace on her part-time parliamentary assistant contract.
Mr Sarkozy’s entourage denied any wrongdoing, confirming the existing of the contract and telling RTL that it had lasted “nine months until March 2003”, allowing Cecilia to “keep track of dossiers” in the constituency.
Her “professional commitment to the long political life of Nicolas Sarkozy between 1988 and 2008 is a matter of public knowledge,” the source close to Mr Sarkozy told Le Monde.
“She was very involved at Neuilly-sur-Seine and more generally in the 6th constituency of the Hauts-de-Seine where her husband was MP.”
The source said she was “so involved that she hadn’t ruled out running for elected office in this area”.
A lawyer for Joëlle Ceccaldi-Raynaud, who stood in for Mr Sarkozy as MP, said there was “nothing criminally reprehensible about the facts” and “the absence of the reality of work remains to be demonstrated”. Besides, the contract was too old to launch legal proceedings.
Ms Ceccaldi-Raynaud was last month charged with aggravated tax fraud over allegations she removed 120 gold bars from a Luxembourg account and €865,000 in cash in 2008 without informing tax authorities. She has denied wrongdoing, saying the money was family inheritance.
The report came as Mr Sarkozy faces a string of legal woes.
A verdict is due on March 1 in his landmark corruption trial in which prosecutors have called for a sentence of four years, two in prison, for trying to bribe a judge with a plum retirement job in exchange for inside information on an inquiry into his campaign finances.
He has also been embroiled in investigations into illegal campaign financing and taking money from former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
He denies all the allegations.
The Canard Enchaîné has form on unearthing fake parliamentary jobs.
Its revelation that François Fillon, a long-time Sarkozy ally, had employed his British wife Penelope as his parliamentary assistant with no real work to justify her salary torpedoed his presidential bid.
The couple were convicted in June for misusing public funds and handed prison sentences, which they have appealed.
When the scandal broke in 2017, Mr Fillon argued that employing one’s spouse or family was common within parliament at the time.
Cecilia Sarkozy, a former model, divorced Sarkozy in October 2007 shortly after he became president and married advertising executive Richard Attias, her third husband.
She did not return calls from Le Canard.
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