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Dirty tricks 'rock' Chirac
11/05/2006 22:06 - (SA)
By Hugh Schofield
Paris - French President Jacques Chirac was drawn into a dirty tricks scandal rocking his government on Thursday, with the publication of leaked evidence showing he knew of a secret enquiry into his political rival, interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
France's Le Monde newspaper printed excerpts of hand-written notes kept by French spy-master Philippe Rondot.
It said the notes "demolish" denials by Chirac and his ally, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, that they ordered an investigation into Sarkozy's alleged secret bank accounts.
Chirac denounced the "dictatorship of rumour" surrounding the so-called Clearstream affair on Wednesday.
The affair has plunged his centre-right government into torment over claims of an internecine smear campaign.
But Villepin's political future remains on a knife-edge after he was accused of lying before the French parliament over the affair, and the Socialist opposition stepped up calls for his resignation.
According to Le Monde, Chirac was directly involved in ordering Rondot to look into the allegations against Sarkozy in January 2004.
'We're done for'
Both he and Villepin were aware of the political dangers if Rondot's enquiry was made public.
"Protect the president," and "Risk: that the PR (president) be damaged" were written several times in Rondot's notes, reported Le Monde reported.
In July 2004, the spy-chief quoted Villepin as saying: "If we appear, the president and me, we're done for."
Rondot - who answered to French defence minister Michele Alliot-Marie at the time - said "she took it very badly that the president decided I should take on the operation directly without answering to her".
Villepin was foreign minister in early 2004. He has repeatedly denied acting under Chirac's instructions to tell Rondot to look into allegations against Sarkozy.
Strong evidence for identity of informant
The allegations - which also targeted other French politicians and business leaders - turned out to be fabricated.
Sarkozy believes he was the victim of a bid to blacken his name ahead of the 2007 presidential election, for which he is a leading candidate.
Sarkozy's entourage said Chirac and Villepin became aware of the claims in 2004.
But instead of handing the matter to the judiciary they launched their own secret investigation to see if the charges against their political foe would stick.
The Clearstream scandal is a murky and complex affair, with origins money-laundering claims in the sale of French warships to Taiwan.
On Thursday, strong evidence emerged that the identity of the informant was the vice-president of the European defence and aerospace company (EADS), Jean-Louis Gergorin.
Gergorin apparently met judge Renaud van Ruymbeke in mid 2004 and told him he had secret information, including a list of Clearstream account-holders, reported France?s newspaper.
Van Ruymbeke denied the reports on Thursday.
- AFP
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