Nicolas Sarkozy entered Prison de la Santé on Tuesday morning after his conviction for criminal conspiracy last month, marking the first time a former French president goes to jail.

Sarkozy left his home hand-in-hand with his wife Carla Bruni and waved to a crowd of people gathered as he climbed into a black car. A while later, his Renault drove through a white door at the Paris prison, closing behind him.

He’s unlikely to serve the full five-year sentence and can immediately file a release request, which typically takes a month to process.

For security reasons, the former French president will be held in solitary confinement. He told Le Figaro magazine that to pass time he would take the two volumes of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and a biography of Jesus by Jean-Christian Petitfils. He added that he plans to write a book.

France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy (L), with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, leaves his residence to present himself to La Sante Prison for incarceration on a five-year prison sentence after being convicted of criminal conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his 2007 electoral campaign, in Paris, on October 21, 2025. © Photo credit: AFP

“As I get ready to cross the wall into the Santé prison, my thoughts go toward the French of all conditions and opinions,” Sarkozy said in a social media post on Tuesday. “I want to say to them with an unshakable force that it isn’t a former president of the republic that’s being imprisoned but an innocent person.”

Sarkozy’s jailing comes at a time of extended political turmoil in France ever since President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections last year that led to a deeply divided parliament. Four different governments have come and gone since, with the latest led by Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on fragile ground despite surviving no-confidence votes last week.

Sarkozy, who was convicted on Sept. 25 after aides allegedly sought electoral funding from Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi’s regime, has consistently denied any wrongdoing. The Paris court dismissed a range of charges, including corruption, and convicted Sarkozy for responding to an offer from the late Qaddafi’s regime to fund his presidential campaign in 2007 by forming a criminal conspiracy.

In France, Sarkozy’s rise and fall has been a matter of great debate. He captured the electorate’s imagination and won the presidency in 2007 by bringing in a new political language that projected a toughness on law and order and immigration.

But was soon after criticized for celebrating his presidential victory with CEOs and entertainment stars and escaping for a few days on billionaire Vincent Bolloré’s yacht. Five years later, a deeply unpopular Sarkozy lost his reelection bit against a backdrop of record public debt and growing unemployment.

This past weekend, days before Sarkozy’s jailing, Macron met with the former French head of state.

“I have always been very clear in my public statements about the independence of the judiciary,” Macron said on Monday, during a trip in Slovenia. “But it was only natural that, on a human level, I would host one of my predecessors.”