PARIS: French authorities said Friday they have launched two investigations into threats targeting the presiding judge in the conspiracy trial of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was jailed for five years.&nbsp;The magistrates&#39; union said the judge, Nathalie Gavarino, had received death threats and messages threatening her with &quot;serious violence&quot; in the wake of Thursday&#39;s verdict.&nbsp;A special anti-online hate task force will lead the investigations.&nbsp;&quot;Freedom of speech, including online, stops when it crosses the line into putting people in danger,&quot; the Paris prosecutors&#39; office said.&nbsp;Sarkozy, 70, was accused of striking a deal with Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his 2007 presidential run, in exchange for helping the late leader restore his international image.&nbsp;The right-winger, France&#39;s president from 2007 to 2012, was acquitted of corruption and personally accepting illegal campaign financing but convicted on criminal conspiracy charges.&nbsp;Sarkozy, who denies wrongdoing, called the verdict &quot;a scandal,&quot; and has appealed.&nbsp;But he will be the first French postwar leader to serve jail time, even as he waits for his appeal to play out.&nbsp;Sarkozy was also fined 100,000 euros ($117,000) and banned from holding public office.&nbsp;He had previously been convicted in two separate trials, but always avoided jail, in one case serving his graft sentence with an electronic tag, which has since been removed.

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The magistrates' union says the judge, Nathalie Gavarino, has received death threats and messages threatening her with "serious violence" in the wake of Thursday's verdict.

France probes threats against judge who sentenced Sarkozy

Reuters

PARIS: France&#39;s new prime minister, Sebastien Lecornu, pledged to find creative ways to work with rivals to pass a debt-slimming budget while also promising new policy directions, after taking office on a day of sprawling anti-government protests on Wednesday.President Emmanuel Macron picked Lecornu to be his fifth prime minister in two years on Tuesday, naming a loyalist who is unlikely to rip up his pro-business economic agenda.Lecornu replaced Francois Bayrou, who was ousted in a parliamentary vote on Monday over his plans to trim the country&#39;s outsized budget deficit, the biggest in the euro zone.Lecornu, most recently defence minister, said in a brief speech after a handover ceremony that the government would need &quot;to be more creative, sometimes more technical, more serious,&quot; in how it works with the opposition. But he also said &quot;ruptures will be necessary&quot;.Lecornu&#39;s immediate challenge will be how to steer a streamlined 2026 budget through parliament, which is split into three distinct ideological blocs. Parties broadly agree on the need to slash France&#39;s deficit, which reached 5.8% of GDP in 2024, but not on how to do it.Lecornu has to send a full draft of the text to parliament by October 7, although there is some wiggle room until October 13, after which lawmakers will run out of time to pass the budget by year&#39;s end.Reactions to Lecornu&#39;s appointment on Tuesday underscored the challenge he faces.While the hard-left said it would seek to topple Lecornu with an immediate no-confidence motion, the far-right National Rally (RN) signalled tentative willingness to work with him on the budget - as long as its budgetary demands are met.&quot;His budget will be RN or his government will not be,&quot; RN lawmaker Laure Lavalette posted on X late on Tuesday.The RN is France&#39;s largest parliamentary party and as such a crucial factor in any potential no-confidence motion. Still, Lecornu is seen as the closest member of Macron&#39;s circle to the RN, having dined with RN president Jordan Bardella last year.&#39;BLOCK EVERYTHING&#39; PROTESTSLecornu&#39;s other path involves uniting the Socialists, who want to water down budget cuts and tax the rich, with his former party The Republicans, who are dead-set against any tax rises.Macron, in an unusual step, called Socialist party leader Olivier Faure on Tuesday to tell him he would not be appointing a leftist as prime minister. On Wednesday, Faure appeared to leave the door ajar to working with Lecornu, while also saying he would support a no-confidence measure if he felt the government didn&#39;t take on board its budgetary priorities.Thousands of people across France meanwhile took to the streets as part of so-called &quot;Block Everything&quot; protests, an expression of broad discontent with Macron, proposed budget cuts and the entire political class.&quot;Anger has been rumbling for months, even years,&quot; said Daniel Bretones, a union member protesting in Marseille. &quot;We&#39;re on the fifth prime minister under Macron&#39;s second term, and it has never changed anything.&quot;

President Emmanuel Macron picked Lecornu to be his fifth prime minister in two years on Tuesday.

Articles tagged with "France Protests"

France probes threats against judge who sentenced Sarkozy

France's new prime minister takes office amid anti-government protests