Nicolas Sarkozy’s judicial woes intensified on Monday after it emerged he may be ordered to personally pay half a million euros in penalties for breaking campaign spending limits.
Already reeling from being placed under formal investigation on corruption charges last week, the conservative former French president now faces a fresh preliminary inquiry into whether his centre-Right UMP party should have footed the bill for him surpassing spending limits during his failed 2012 re-election campaign.
France’s campaign financing watchdog announced in 2012 that Mr Sarkozy had gone beyond the €22.5 (£17.9 million) spending ceiling allotted to his UMP party.
As a penalty, it ordered him to pay back a €150,000 state advance for his campaign and the €364,000 he had overspent.
France’s constitutional council also ordered the UMP to return €10.6 million in reimbursed expenses for having breached spending limits.