Can Nicolas Sarkozy bounce back yet again?

The charges of influence peddling facing France's former president shed more light on 'le système Sarkozy' he deployed while in power

France had spent the night before celebrating its qualification to the World Cup's quarter finals, when it woke up to the news that its former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, had been taken into police custody in a police station in northern Paris and now faces criminal charges. In the course of a few hours, France went from thrill to chill. It is the first time since 1958 – the beginning of the Fifth republic – that a French former president has been taken into police custody. He is, however, not the first to face a judge. His mentor in politics, Jacques Chirac, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence for embezzlement.

On learning the news, my first reaction was: which of the six Sarkozy-related scandals is it this time? We need a little recap here. You may remember L'Affaire Bettencourt. Sarkozy was under investigation for allegedly taking advantage of the elderly and mentally fragile L'Oréal heiress in the financing of his 2007 presidential campaign. Charges were dropped eight months ago and Sarkozy didn't have to face a trial, leaving him free to run for presidency in 2017. At the same time, French magistrates were also investigating allegations that Colonel Gaddafi had paid €50m into Sarkozy's 2007 campaign. During this investigation, French magistrates wire-tapped conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer and made "unsettling" discoveries.

To cut a long story short, Sarkozy is alleged to have built a network of informants within the judiciary and the court of cassation who kept him and his lawyers informed of the progress of the Bettencourt investigations and every other sensitive dossier he might be linked to. The former president and his lawyer, who appeared to know that their phone was bugged by the investigative judges, resorted to buying pre-paid mobile phones under fake names. As a result, Sarkozy, his lawyer and two judges from the court of cassation were taken into police custody for questioning on Monday and Tuesday and have now been put under investigation for "abuse of power". Investigators also want to find out if Sarkozy promised top-level jobs in exchange of confidential information.

Sarkozy may well end up being released. However, if nothing else, this new episode is shedding some more light on "le système Sarkozy". Here is a president who never hesitated to call high civil servants in order to grill them and obtain confidential information. Le Monde revealed yesterday how Sarkozy, by calling and interrogating the head of intelligence service on the Gaddafi investigation, put such a senior civil servant in an untenable position.

The current investigation, led by two top female magistrates, Patricia Simon and Claire Thépaut, will need to prove in no uncertain terms whether such practice is illegal or simply part of the bullying tactics of people in power that have been tolerated so far. Sarkozy vehemently denies any wrongdoing.

As for his political future, that is another matter. If he had been hoping to present himself as France's next saviour, he may have to think again. And with his own political family in disarray, itself mired in illegal party financing scandals, Nicolas Sarkozy will find it slightly more difficult than usual to bounce back. However, in French politics, three years (until the next presidential election) is an eternity.