Downfall of a President: No way back for disgraced Nicolas Sarkozy

Sarkozy, who styled himself as ‘Le Top Cop’, now has two criminal convictions, reports Peter Allen in Paris

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy (EPA)

Le Top Cop was a one of many nicknames that Nicolas Sarkozy revelled in when he became President of France in May 2007.

The diminutive conservative had spent years building up his power base as one of the country’s most reactionary Interior Ministers ever.

He referred to young lawbreakers from council estates as “scum” and called for harsher prison sentences to punish them with, while cracking down on any kind of political dissent with legions of riot control officers.