How Italian papers react to Sarkozy's prison sentence

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00:00Well, here in Italy, just the news of a French president having to face jail time and being made

00:06into prison. Obviously, it has hit the front pages of all the major dailies. If you look here,

00:12La Repubblica, the Rome-based sort of center-left daily, the picture of Mr. Sarkozy and his wife,

00:18Calabruni, talking about Sarkozy going to jail for five years for those funds to the Libyans.

00:24And then you have the Milan-based Correa della Sera, a sort of center-right paper, if you like,

00:30or more centrist, talking about the five years for Sarkozy and how he's saying,

00:36I'm in jail as an innocent person. So the picture of the president also making the front pages there.

00:42Another Rome-based daily, Il Messagero, talking about how he's jailed again for five years. He's

00:49going to jail and that's going to happen, but always talking also about the fact that his wife

00:55was by his side. The Turin-based paper, La Stampa, talking about Sarkozy's Bastille.

01:03That's the situation that he's facing now. He's being stormed and that is what is going to be

01:08happening to him going to jail, quoting his wife, saying that she's saying that hate will not win.

01:16And then you have Il Giornale, which is a right-wing paper here at the side, talking about Sarkozy

01:22going to prison as well because of what happened vis-à-vis Libya, but saying at one time he was

01:28considered a gentleman. But now, sort of 14 years later, the magistrates in France have confirmed

01:36what Il Giornale has always written itself. So really a response there from the Italian media,

01:44very clearly following this story closely and, of course, remembering what Mr. Sarkozy

01:50was like when he was president and the situation in terms of relations with Italy.

01:57Yeah, and specifically relations with Berlusconi. I'm curious about that and what some of the

02:02center-right stations have had to say about it.

02:04Exactly. I mean, what we're seeing in terms of reactions, we've seen some reactions from

02:11the center-right television channels and papers that are sort of controlled and owned by Berlusconi's

02:18family and who are known to be close to them. They're remembering specifically in their reports

02:24about a press conference in 2011 between where we saw Mr. Sarkozy and then-German Chancellor Angela

02:31Merkel smirk when they were asked about Mr. Berlusconi and how at that time when there was

02:39the economic crisis that Europe was facing and their reaction was to laugh at the leader.

02:45It was seen very much here at the time as a humiliation for Mr. Berlusconi that they both

02:50smirked in response to his name. And some would say at the time as well a humiliation for Italy

02:56because Italy and Mr. Berlusconi weren't quick enough to deal with the debt crisis that was

03:02facing Europe at the time. So the papers really talking about that, saying that this is a man

03:08that laughed at Italy and now he is going to prison himself on charges of criminal conspiracy.

03:16And even talking about statements that were made by Italy's foreign minister and deputy prime

03:24minister, Mr. Tayani, who now leads Mr. Berlusconi's party, Forza Italia. Back in 2023, he made comments

03:31to a book written by Mr. Sarkozy about how he may have been partly responsible for Mr. Berlusconi

03:38being forced to resign back in 2011 and basically saying that that was not fair. And of course,

03:45now the papers linked to Mr. Berlusconi and the channels reminding about what's happening. And it feels

03:51almost like a comeuppance on what he did when he, who they say he humiliated Italy back then.

03:57All right, Sima, thank you very much. Sima Gupta reporting from Rome.

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