Bribery 'hoax' scandal shakes French political elite

A scandal that has shaken France’s political elite has gained momentum with a report quoting a former secret agent alleging that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin asked for an investigation into his chief political rival.

Le Monde newspaper reported yesterday that Villepin, on the orders of French President Jacques Chirac, asked the agent to dig up information on Nicolas Sarkozy, now interior minister, as part of a wider bribe-taking inquiry centred on the Defence Ministry.

The implication: Villepin and Chirac were trying to sully Sarkozy’s reputation before next year’s presidential elections – for which he is considered a leading candidate.

Villepin and Chirac quickly denied the report.

The French state “never had another goal but to defend national security and the interests of our country”, Villepin said. Chirac’s office said he “categorically denied having asked for the slightest inquiry targeting political personalities whose names have been mentioned”.

The scandal started simmering in 2004, when Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke received a CD-ROM accusing Sarkozy and other top ministers of holding secret accounts with Luxembourg bank Clearstream. The accounts were said to hold kickbacks from the sale of French frigates to Taiwan in 1991, which Van Ruymbeke was investigating when he received the CD.

After a year of investigation, the judge decided the list was a fake. Now, the question is: Who wrote the list, and why?

Sarkozy has demanded a new probe to punish the mysterious informer, convinced the affair was devised to ruin his reputation and presidential chances. He has also accused Villepin of knowing much earlier – and perhaps all along – that it was all a hoax.

Villepin acknowledged to Le Monde and Le Figaro that he had ordered an investigation in early 2004 into the Defence Ministry’s role in alleged bribe-taking in the frigates deal. But he insisted that Sarkozy’s name was not mentioned until later, after the CD appeared.

The agent who carried out Villepin’s inquiry, Gen. Philippe Rondot, told a different story, Le Monde reported, saying it had obtained 20 pages of his testimony before investigators.

Rondot, a former intelligence agent, said Sarkozy’s name came up in a meeting with Villepin on January 9, 2004, according to Le Monde. It said investigators had confiscated Rondot’s notes on the conversation, including one that read: “Political stake: N. Sarkozy. Fixation on Sarkozy (re: conflict J. Chirac/N. Sarkozy).”

Chirac and Sarkozy have often been at odds, and Villepin has long been considered Chirac’s preferred successor.

Villepin, who gained international prominence as foreign minister after a 2003 speech at the UN Security Council arguing against the Iraq war, is no longer considered a contender for the presidency. His standing was badly damaged by weeks of demonstrations this spring over a youth jobs plan he sponsored.

The affair has also implicated top defence contractors, including Airbus parent European Aeronautic and Defence Systems, and highlighted the rift between two political-industrial camps dominated by Villepin and Sarkozy.