I almost feel bad for the dude. Barely a month after the new labor contract debacle, Villepin is now implicated in a sordid affair of politcal manipulation, in which he may, or may not, have insisted, as Secretary of State, that the Secret Service should particularly focus a corruption investigation on a Nicolas Sarkozy.Of course nowadays, as the Presidential Elections loom, their rivalry is common knowledge, but both have hated each other for years; Villepin never forgave Sarkozy for supporting Chirac's rival in 1995, while the latter never forgave the Prime Minister his most massive fuck-up (advising Chirac to dissolve the Parliament in 1997).
[+/-] Read More
The story goes something like this:
- 1991: a bunch of boats manufactured by a state-owned consortium (several VP's of which are good buddies with Villepin) are sold to Taiwan, to the tune of several billion dollars
- 2001: a corruption judge gets a tip that monies may have been transferred into the Luxemburg bank accounts of some well-connect politicans and businessmen
- 2003: a list of names makes its way into the Secret Service; Sarkozy's name is on the list
- 2004: several ministers order a full inquiry; Secretary of State Villepin allegedly asks the Secret Service to pay particular attention to Sarkozy; the Secret Service raises questions as to the authenticity of the documents supporting the corruption claims, the origin and motivation of the list, and ends up declaring the whole deal a sham and buries the inquiry
But now of course, what happens if Villepin is forced to resign?
Labels: france
)
