Sarkozy expected in court for questioning on Tuesday afternoon

The former head of state, who has been represented since the opening of the Bygmalion trial on May 20, will be present before the Paris criminal court for his interrogation, scheduled for 1:30 p.m., his lawyer Me Thierry confirmed to AFP. Herzog. The thirteen other defendants - former executives of Bygmalion and the UMP, campaign director, chartered accountants - who marched to the bar, are all suspected of being involved to varying degrees in the double billing system devised to hide the explosion of authorized expenses during the campaign of the president candidate for his re-election. The real price of some 40 meetings organized by the event agency Bygmalion had been drastically reduced, and the rest - 80% of the bills - paid by the UMP (now LR), in the name of fictitious party conventions. Unlike the others, dismissed in particular for fraud or use of forgery, Nicolas Sarkozy is not implicated for this system, and appears for "illegal campaign financing" only. He faces one year in prison and a fine of 3,750 euros. In March, he became the first ex-president of the Fifth Republic to be sentenced to prison (three years, one of which is firm), for corruption and influence peddling in the so-called "wiretapping" case.

Ikea France soon fixed on its fate

The French subsidiary of Ikea, accused alongside former officials of having illegally spied on several hundred employees between 2009 and 2012, will be fixed on its fate on Tuesday when the Versailles criminal court renders its judgment, eagerly awaited by some 120 parties. civil. "The challenge" of this trial is that "of the protection of our private lives in relation to a threat, that of mass surveillance", declared prosecutor Paméla Tabardel on March 30, asking that the criminal response be a "strong message" sent to "all commercial companies". The prosecution has requested a fine of 2 million euros against the French subsidiary of the Swedish furniture giant, which incurs a fine of up to 3.75 million euros. A year in prison was demanded against a former CEO from 1996 to 2009, Jean-Louis Baillot, risking up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 750,000 euros. The prosecutor had, however, requested the release of Stefan Vanoverbeke, CEO of Ikea France from 2010 to 2015, against whom there is "no material element", according to her.

Biden wants to relaunch the partnership with the EU, facing China

Joe Biden meets EU leaders in Brussels on Tuesday to relaunch a partnership battered by the Trump years and gauge their support for China, Paris and Berlin refusing to fully align with Washington. The summit will allow us to see what is behind the slogan "America is back", after the euphoria aroused by the election of Joe Biden. After the crisis of the relationship under Donald Trump, who had qualified the EU as an "enemy" and did not hide his lack of taste for the European project, Joe Biden arrives with a radically different speech. The American president will meet at midday the head of the European Council Charles Michel, representative of the Twenty-Seven, and the president of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen. The first cases on the table are commercial disputes with punitive taxes on both sides.

Death of Maradona: his night nurse had orders "not to wake him up"

In Argentina, the night nurse of Diego Maradona, the first member of his medical team to appear before the Argentine prosecutor's office on Monday, denied having abandoned his patient to a slow agony, claiming to have "received the order not to wake him up" . Ricardo Almiron, 37, spent more than seven hours in the prosecutor's office in San Isidro, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires: he is suspected of having lied by claiming that the football idol was sleeping and breathing normally a few hours before his death, while the autopsy revealed that he was in agony. Diego Maradona, who suffered from kidney, liver and heart problems, died in 2020 of a heart attack alone at his residence in Tigre, north of Buenos Aires, just weeks after undergoing brain surgery for a blood clot. He was 60 years old. The nurse "had received the order not to wake the patient", but nevertheless "had the wisdom to carry out his task" of surveillance, assured his lawyer, Franco Chiarelli, when he left this long interrogation.

Macron and Erdogan met in Brussels

French Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Brussels in "a peaceful atmosphere", pledging to "work together" on Libya and Syria, according to the French head of state. On all contentious issues, "it was important to move forward", summed up Emmanuel Macron to the press after this 45-minute face-to-face meeting at NATO headquarters on the sidelines of the Alliance summit. This meeting allowed "appeasement", "clarification" and "concrete work on humanitarian issues in Syria and Libya", he added.

IN SHORT

An investigation for "spousal homicide" was opened after the discovery of the lifeless bodies of a man and a woman in an apartment in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. "The exact origin of the deaths is to be determined," said the Paris prosecutor's office.

An exchange of prisoners as a gesture of goodwill to bring US-Russian relations out of their current slump? Vladimir Putin said he was ready for it before his summit with Joe Biden, who is under pressure to obtain the release of two Americans detained in Russia.

A goal from a free kick and bright openings from Messi were not enough: Argentina missed their entry into the Copa America by drawing with Chile (1-1) on Monday during the 1st day of Group A .

Spain missed their debut in the Euro by stumbling over Sweden (0-0), Slovakia took control of Group E after their victory against Poland 2-1.