Do we like them?

Do we like Nicolas Sarkozy?

Our score: 3 out of 10. Two final convictions, a third conviction under appeal and some harsh moments on race and religion, with almost no verified good to set against them.

Sarkozy is the son of immigrants, one Greek and one Hungarian, who became a lawyer and went into politics at 23 as a councillor in Neuilly-sur-Seine. He climbed through the interior and finance ministries, led his party and won the presidency in 2007, then lost to François Hollande in 2012. That is the arc: a political fighter who got to the top and has spent the years since in courtrooms.

The legal tally is big. France's top court made his conviction in the Bismuth case final in December 2024, over corruption and influence-peddling, and he served it with an electronic tag. In November 2025 the same court upheld his conviction over the overspending of his 2012 campaign (the Bygmalion affair), a year in prison with six months firm. He has fought these cases throughout.

The big one is Libya. In September 2025 a Paris court convicted him of criminal conspiracy over alleged Libyan money for his 2007 run, sentencing him to five years, though it did not find the money reached the campaign. He went to jail in October and was freed after about 20 days pending appeal. He says he is innocent, and the appeal ran through spring 2026, with prosecutors asking for seven years. A ruling is still to come, so treat it as unresolved.

On the harm test, I found nothing on his record about LGBTQ+ people either way, and nothing on climate, so that is a gap, not a pass. What did turn up is his 2007 Dakar speech, which African critics called paternalistic, and his government's 2009-10 national identity debate, which was tied to immigration and ended up dropped. Where you land depends on whether you read those as tough talk on integration or as a dog-whistle to the anti-immigrant right.

So the verdict is a shrug with a frown. He hasn't been found anywhere to be campaigning against LGBTQ+ people, but with final convictions on the board, a big appeal pending and a record on race and migration that critics hammer, there is nothing here to cheer about.