French press review 7 July 2010

Let's start with the good news: financial daily Les Echos's feel-good front-page splash reports property prices in France have gone up by a hefty 8.5 per cent a year, and nearly 15 per cent in Paris, thus nullifying the negative impact of the world financial crisis. But from there, it's all hokey pokey, or perhaps that should read hanky panky, on the front pages of the majority of French papers this morning.

I am of course referring to the allegations of sleaze besmirching the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The scandal arising from the alleged tax avoidance affairs of L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt continues to weigh heavily on French political leaders, in particular on labour minister and ruling UMP party treasurer Eric Woerth.

The latest development is the accusation by a former Bettencourt accountant that a payment of 150,000 euros was made via Woerth to Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007. Woerth, at the time, was treasurer of the UMP party.

It was then, and still is now, illegal for candidates to receive more than 4,600 euros and for parties to receive more than 7,500 euros.

Adding a touch of class to the affair, the former accountant claimed that the cash was handed out in an envelope. The accuser has not yet confirmed whether the colour was lily white, or of the brown-nose type.

UMP leaders in the upper and lower houses of parliament have asked Sarkozy to address the nation on the issue, and left-of-centre Le Monde claims the president is thinking of appearing on television to set the record straight.

Eric Woerth himself did appear on last evening’s news to deny any wrongdoing.

Le Figaro splashes with “It's enough” in the minister's defence and, one suspects, to warn the government's critics. Indeed, Woerth himself accused the opposition Socialist party of orchestrating a smear campaign, and ruled out resigning.

For most of the other papers, though, the pitch is different. Catholic La Croix, under the headline “Money and Politics, a Slippery Slope”, highlights the questions surrounding how political parties are financed, despite a tightening of the law in the 1990s.

Both communist L'Humanité and left-wing Libération have put Sarkozy on their front pages, stressing that the scandal (if there is one, of course) goes all the way to the top.

Under the headline ”A State Affair”, L'Humanité shows Sarkozy with gritted teeth surfing on a 100-euro note.

Libé is even more concise with “l'Escalade”, which translates roughly as “the proverbial is really hitting the fan”.

Another story focuses on Quai d'Orsay, the moniker the French foreign ministry derives from its address.

Jean-Christophe Rufin, ambassador to Senegal from 2007 to 2010, launches a scathing attack on the way the French foreign ministry is run.

Under the provocative headline “The Quai d'Orsay has lost all influence in Africa”, Rufin claims Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner does not pull his weight and has let Sarkozy's presidential affairs general secretary make decisions on Africa.

Rufin points out that Claude Guéant, a career civil servant, has little knowledge or experience of African realities.

He also says Kouchner failed to defend his man in Dakar when president Abdoulaye Wade called for him to be replaced.

Despite Sarkozy’s 2007 promise to break the country from its Françafrique past, Rufin says the Quai is once again reliant on networks, as in the early days of colonial-style networks, as when trade companies used the services of the Lebanese communities.

He rounds off his interview criticising the decision to organise the 50th anniversary celebrations of the independence of former colonies. The initiative, Rufin notes, has received little support either from the Africans themselves or the French.

Two former French foreign ministers add grist to the mill.

Alain Juppé and Hubert Védrine, one on the right of the political spectrum and the other on the left, call for the Quai to be spared the axe in the coming round of cuts announced by the government.

It represents only 1.3 per cent of government spending, and paring its budget any further could push it over the edge, the two men argue.

Kouchner dismissed the strictures spelled out by his former friend and Médecins sans Frontières colleague (both men are trained medical doctors).

When asked to respond, his first reaction, according to Le Monde, was to say "Rufin? Who he?", as one satirical British magazine would put it.

According to Le Figaro, Kouchner replied that he hoped Rufin would not choke on his bile. Happy days, indeed, for the French political establishment .