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Former president Nicolas Sarkozy was at the pinnacle of French politics for just five years, but left a long and lurid trail of corruption allegations behind him.
Eight years after retiring from politics, the man known as the “hyper-president” remains influential, a trusted adviser to Emmanuel Macron, who turned to the fiery right-winger when his centrist liberalism wilted under attack from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party. “The right haven’t found anyone to replace him,” was how one insider put it.
Yet this pillar of the French state has begun a five-year jail sentence for his role in a conspiracy to illegally raise campaign funds from Libya. On Tuesday morning, he swapped the comfort of his Paris home - where he lives with his third wife, model and singer-songwriter Carla
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