Sarkozy Says He Turned Down Macron’s Offer Of A Safer Prison — Chronicles 20 Days At La Santé

Nicolas Sarkozy says he declined an offer from President Emmanuel Macron to move him to a different, allegedly safer detention facility, according to excerpts from his forthcoming memoir, The Diary of a Prisoner. The former French president recounts the 20 days he spent at La Santé prison in Paris after his conviction for campaign-financing offences.

Sarkozy writes that he met Mr Macron for a two-hour conversation days before going into custody despite their strained relationship. An excerpt released by RTL says Macron appeared "troubled, even shocked" that his predecessor was due to go to jail and displayed "an impressive, likeable energy, but one that seemed to me both too late and, above all, rather disorganised," Sarkozy recalls.

Macron's Offer And Sarkozy's Refusal

According to the book, Macron urged Sarkozy to change prisons because of safety concerns and proposed a facility that included apartments for prisoners' families. Sarkozy says he refused the relocation, explaining:

"I even specified to him that I would not accept 'any preferential treatment', as any modification was likely to cause controversy."

Life Inside La Santé

After their conversation, two officers from the VIP protection service were placed in the cell adjacent to Sarkozy's at La Santé to provide round-the-clock protection. Sarkozy reports he was heckled and abused by other inmates during his stay. He was assigned prison number 320535, held in a roughly 120 sq ft cell in solitary confinement for security reasons, and subsisted mainly on dairy products, cereal bars and mineral water.

He describes the environment starkly: "I was struck by the absence of any colour. Grey dominated everything, devoured everything, covered all surfaces." He also recounts writing daily while incarcerated: "I wrote with a ballpoint pen on a small plywood table, every day. I gave the pages to my lawyers, who gave them to my secretary to type them up."

Legal Fallout And Political Conversations

In September, Sarkozy was found guilty of conspiring to finance his 2007 presidential campaign with funds from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He was sentenced to five years in prison and banned from holding public office, becoming the first president in the history of the Fifth Republic to serve jail time. An appeals court granted him release pending a retrial scheduled for next March.

Sarkozy also recounts post-sentencing contact with far-Right leader Marine Le Pen, who reportedly asked if he would join a "republican front" to block the hard Right; he says he declined, arguing that rebuilding the Right should be pursued "through the broadest possible spirit of unity, without exclusion or condemnation." He adds that he turned down a prison visit from U.S. ambassador Charles Kushner on his lawyer's advice.

Alongside his appeal on the Libyan financing conviction, Sarkozy remains under investigation over consulting work tied to Russia and questions related to the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Excerpts of The Diary of a Prisoner were published by RTL, and Sarkozy gave further comments to Le Figaro.