Mediapart

Rust and Bone.© Roger Arpajou, Why Not Productions

French film director Jacques Audiard has met with widespread acclaim at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for his latest film, Rust and Bone ( De rouille et d'os), an adaptation of Canadian author Craig Davidson’s collection of short stories by the same name. As the film appears poised for a huge box-office success, Mediapart’s Christine Marcandier interviews Davidson about how the project with Audiard began (in a meeting when he spilled water over the celebrated director’s “lovely” felt hat), what he thinks of the film, and his approach to writing - which he admits has seen him go “a little crazy” in living out the pains of his characters.

Buren's work at the Grand Palais.

Celebrated French conceptual artist Daniel Buren has created a gigantic, ambitious work for the Grand Palais in Paris as part of its Monumenta series of projects that began in 2007. The sheer scale of the show, running until June 21st, is awe-inspiring. It occupies a surface of 13,500 square metres,a volume of 500,000 cubic metres and rises 45 metres above the ground. Mediapart’s Hugo Vitrani casts a critical eye over Buren's latest oeuvre, and reviews the 74 year-old artist’s long and often controversial career.

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They are now about to end their lives amusing the nouveau rich beside swimming pools and on golf courses. The unluckiest will be replanted as zoo-like curiosities in ornamental gardens in northern Europe, even Russia, where the cold and lack of light will turn them sterile. At the current rate of uprooting, these majestic and viable olive trees, many hundreds of years old, some even a thousand years old, will have entirely disappeared from southern Portugal and Spain in the space of a generation. Philippe Riès reports on an ecological and cultural disaster caused by the perverse effects of European Union agricultural policies.

J-M Ayrault (l) with F. Hollande.© Reuters

French President François Hollande pledged during his election campaign to clean up French political governance, blighted by years of recurrent scandals and conflicts of interest. Among the promises he made was that anyone who had been convicted of crimes would be excluded from government. Yet Hollande’s first act after he was sworn in was to appoint Jean-Marc Ayrault as his prime minister who, when mayor of Nantes in 1997, received a suspended prison sentence for favouritism in the allocation of a city hall contract, described by a court of audit as “a serious infringement of the rules governing public contracts”. While Ayrault insists that “my personal integrity was never in question”, his lawyers argue that he has been legally rehabilitated and have threatened to sue those who engage in “character defamation” by publicly raising the affair. Mathilde Mathieu and Michel Deléan report.

© Liu Bolin / courtesy galerie Paris-Beijing

Chinese artist Liu Bolin is one of a new generation of dissident artists that have emerged in China in recent years. His art is a double play on what the visible and invisibile. The artist disappears into the scene, camouflaged by fine paintwork, an act that represents and denounces the repression of individuality under crushing state power. Earlier this spring, his works were showcased in a series of exhibitions in Moscow, Paris and New York. He granted a rare interview to Mediapart’s Hugo Vitrani, published here along with a selection of his photographic works, and video reportages.

The five years of the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy were hallmarked by his unprecedented involvement in the day-to-day running of government, from policy announcements to public appearances, leaving his prime minister, François Fillon, in a backstage role. It became dubbed as the ‘hyper presidency’, a dramatic change from that of his predecessors, who perceived their role as a more lofty, behind-the-scenes management of the major affairs of state while their prime ministers were placed at the political frontline. The arrival of François Hollande, self-styled as ‘Mr Normal’, is expected to herald an abrupt rupture with Sarkozy’s media-conscious and agitated presidential style.  But just what will be the power balance in his relationship with Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, a longstanding friend and political ally? Stéphane Alliès reports.

France’s new socialist government was unveiled Wednesday evening, after an afternoon of prolonged talks between newly-elected President François Hollande and Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. The list of 34 ministers – including 17 junior ministers – met Hollande’s promise to form a government with gender parity, and includes the creation of new ministries that announced the task ahead in tackling the economic crisis, like that of Productive Recovery. But the first surprise of the day was the news that Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry, once tipped for the post of prime minister, would not be included in Ayrault’s cabinet. Graham Tearse reports (a full list of the new government is presented on page three).

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Not a day passes without an increase in the death toll of the now 14-month old uprising in Syria against President Bashar al-Assad, despite a United Nations-backed ceasefire negotiated by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan more than a month ago. In this interview with Mediapart’s Caroline Donati, Robert Malley, a former special advisor on the Middle East to US President Bill Clinton, and now Programme Director for Middle East-North Africa affairs with the International Crisis Group, analyses the options for the international community, and the US in particular, in bringing an end to the bloody repression by the Assad regime, which the UN says has now claimed the lives of at least 9,000 people.

Magistrates in Bordeaux last week ordered that Patrice de Maistre, former wealth manager for L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, should continue to be kept in preventive detention while they continue investigations into his role in a series of massive and mysterious cash withdrawals from the billionaire’s secret Swiss bank accounts. The judges have uncovered further evidence, described by one source close to the case as “solid”, that suggests some of the money was used to illegally fund outgoing French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign – which is also suspected of being illegally financed by the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Lawyers for Maistre complained that he was being kept in jail to “pressure” him into confessing the scam. Michel Deléan reports on the latest developments in the Bettencourt case, now rapidly closing in on Sarkozy, who will hand over office to newly-elected François Hollande on Tuesday.

Nicolas Sarkozy and Colonel Gaddafi, 2007© Reuters

A transcription of a conversation between the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and Nicolas Sarkozy, the first held by the two men following Sarkozy’s election as president in May 2007, reveals that, contrary to recent denials by the outgoing French head of state, Tripoli was offered French cooperation to develop a nuclear power programme, along with sales of weapons and security systems. The document, exclusively revealed here by Mediapart, also contains an exchange between the two leaders to decide with which Libyan official Sarkozy could discuss what he described as “delicate questions”. Gaddafi confirmed Sarkozy’s suggestion that this should be Bashir Saleh, head of the Libyan African Portfolio sovereign wealth investment fund who is named in a separate document published by Mediapart as the paymaster for the secret Libyan funding of Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report.

France’s newly-elected president François Hollande has promised he will seek a reform of European austerity policies, beginning with a re-negotiation of the so-called fiscal compact treaty, and the introduction of economic growth initiatives. But his programme faces stern opposition from Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has ruled out any change to the fiscal compact. With a busy international agenda ahead, including summits of the G8 and NATO later this month, and crucial parliamentary elections in France in June, Hollande's room for negotiations before an EU summit on June 28th is uncomfortably tight. Meanwhile, the deepening political crisis in Greece continues to threaten an explosion of the eurozone. Lénaïg Bredoux and Ludovic Lamant report on the official and unofficial manouevering as the new French president prepares for his first major test in power.

The winner: François Hollande.© Thomas Haley

Socialist Party candidate François Hollande has won the French presidential elections. Official results announced by the interior ministry at 1 a.m. Monday gave Hollande a 51.67% share of the vote in mainland France, but excluding the results from French expatriate votes. Hollande’s victory over incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, credited with 48.33%, is the first time a socialist has been elected president since François Mitterrand won a second term of office in 1988 and ends 17 years of uninterrupted conservative occupancy of the post. Hollande, 57, will now formally enter office mid-May, when he will appoint a prime minister to form a caretaker government until parliamentary elections are held in June. “I have confidence in France, I know it well, I know we are capable of straightening ourselves up," Hollande said in a victory speech on Sunday evening. “It is this French dream that I will make it my job to accomplish." Sarkozy, meanwhile, said he accepted "full responsibility" for his defeat and announced he was quitting front-line politics. "My place can no longer be the same" he said, "another era is underway".

France and Greece both go to the urns on Sunday for crucial elections that will, whatever the results, have a significant effect on the future of the EU’s approach to the economic crisis. While the final play-off in the French presidential elections on May 6th could produce a turning point in the use of blanket austerity measures to nurse already strangled EU economies back to health, the Greek legislative elections are in effect a referendum on the country’s continued membership of the eurozone. Mediapart’s Brussels correspondent Ludovic Lamant reports on what is likely to be a watershed moment for Europe.

al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi.© Reuters

Former Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi has confirmed that the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi secretly provided 50 million euros for Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign. “We took part in Mr Sarkozy’s success and in the financing of his 2007 presidential campaign,” Mahmoudi said in an interview with Mediapart, conducted through his lawyer. "The figure of 50 million euros is correct.” Mahmoudi’s confirmation follows the publication by Mediapart of a December 2006 document, signed by the then head of Libya's foreign intelligence agency, Moussa Koussa, detailing how the Gaddafi regime agreed to “support the electoral campaign” of Sarkozy for the “sum of fifty million euros”, while the secret payments were to pass via the Libyan African Portfolio, a sovereign wealth investment fund. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report.

Slideshow available on article page. © Thomas Haley

The traditional May Day marches across France to celebrate International Workers’ Day brought out 750,000 people nationwide, according to the country’s principal trades union, the CGT. The largest rally was held in Paris, where the union claimed 250,000 turned out – 48,000 according to the police. While the real figure most certainly lies somewhere between, observers agreed that it was a larger number than showed up in 2011, encouraged at least in part by the clement weather and the final stage of the Left hopes will be a victorious presidential election campaign. American Paris-based photographer Thomas Haley, who has been following the French presidential election campaign with a series of picture reports for Mediapart, joined the festive crowds marching through the capital.

Video roll available on article page.

Photographer Patrick Artinian is following the French presidential election campaign trail for Mediapart, with a series of photo and video reportages of the candidates, their supporters, meetings and the milestone events. Here he captures the atmosphere at Nicolas Sarkozy’s counter-May Day rally in Paris on May 1st, when the incumbent presidential election candidate, forecast by opinion surveys to be trounced by Socialist Party rival François Hollande in the final play-off on Sunday, called on his supporters to turn out en masse in support of “real labour”. The notion, he said, describes he "who gets up very early every morning and goes to bed late at night, who doesn't ask for congratulations, nor medals, nothing.”     

Slideshow available on article page. © Thomas Haley

Far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen led party supporters on their now traditional May 1st “patriotic” rally, beginning with a wreath-laying ceremony at the statue of Joan of Arc in central Paris, and ending with a gathering at the nearby Place de L’Opéra square where Le Pen delivered a speech before a flag-waving crowd, many with T-shirts and banners proclaiming ‘French proud and strong’. American Paris-based photographer Thomas Haley was there to capture the atmosphere for Mediapart.  

Bashir Saleh.© dr

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Prime Minister François Fillon were under increasing pressure Tuesday to explain the extraordinary protection they have afforded to a former senior Libyan official, Bashir Saleh, identified in a document published by Mediapart as a principal figure involved in the secret funding of Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign by the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Saleh is the subject of an Interpol request for his arrest for extradition to Libya where he is wanted on fraud charges. Despite the Interpol ‘red notice', Saleh continues to live comfortably in France where he was issued with a residency permit after fleeing Libya following the toppling of the Gaddafi regime. Sarkozy claims there is confusion over the identity of the fugitive, while Fillon said he was unaware of the Interpol notice, which is posted to the general public on its website. Louise Fessard and Carine Fouteau report.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced he is to sue Mediapart over its report of plans by the former Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to fund his presidential election campaign in 2007. Mediapart stands by all the evidence it has revealed, writes Editor-in Chief Edwy Plenel, who explains here why Sarkozy’s reaction, and the accompanying denials of two protected former Gaddafi henchmen, were entirely predictable.

The April 22nd first round of the French presidential elections left incumbent candidate Nicolas Sarkozy in a close second-place behind the Socialist Party’s François Hollande. In his campaigning before the final play-off between the two on May 6th, Sarkozy has caused controversy and dismay over his overt attempts to capture the electorate of the far-right Front National party, whose candidate Marine Le Pen scored almost 18% in the first round poll. While the outgoing president has placed immigration issues to the fore, he also announced plans to organise a rally in Paris on May 1st to honour what he deems to be "real labour", as a counter-demonstration against the traditional trades union-organised May Day parade. Mediapart economic and social affairs correspondent Laurent Mauduit argues here why the initiative is an outrageous throwback to the WWII collaborationist Vichy government of German-occupied France, whose leader, Marshal Philippe Pétain, attempted to transform this day of international workers’ solidarity into a day in honour of so-called "labour and social harmony".

© Reuters

Mediapart can reveal compelling new evidence that President Nicolas Sarkozy's successful 2007 election campaign was partly funded by former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. A document signed by a senior figure in Libya in 2006 and recently obtained by Mediapart states that the regime approved a payment of 50 million euros to back Sarkozy's campaign, following a meeting with one of his most trusted politica allies. The explosive revelation is certain to fuel calls for a full-scale enquiry into the funding of the president's last election campaign. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report.

In a bid to help stamp out racism, Socialist Party presidential candidate François Hollande wants to make a small but significant amendment to article 1 of the French Constitution – the removal of the word “race”. But would that make any difference? Academic and human rights campaigner Danièle Lochak thinks not, dismissing the idea as merely “for show”. Here, in an interview with Mediapart's Carine Fouteau, she explains her reasoning.

Social networks have had an enormous impact on people's daily lives. The effect of this new form of media has also been felt by the world of culture and art, and in particular the novel. In France writers have been quick to seize upon this new form of communication as an inspiration for their work. Here Christine Marcandier looks at four recent French novels that have been directly influenced by the Facebook revolution.

Front National leader Marine Le Pen, April 22nd.© Thomas Haley

While Socialist Party presidential candidate François Hollande won the election first round on Sunday, it was far-right Front National party leader Marine Le Pen who came out of the contest the most jubilant. Her nationwide 17.9% slice of the vote was the highest the far-right has ever obtained in presidential elections, well beyond what opinion polls predicted, and has elevated her to the position of a broker of votes for the next round. For as Hollande and second-placed Nicolas Sarkozy now move on to the final play-off on May 6th, the outgoing president is now launched on a desperate and dismal chase for support from the far-right electorate. But is Marine Le Pen on the threshold of transforming the Front National into a significant and popular force on the Right, or will she more likely belly-flop from the crest of a temporary wave of protest from a politically disenfranchised section of French society? For an answer, and an explanation of her success, Michaël Hajdenberg turned to Sylvain Crépon, a sociology professor and a recognised expert researcher on the Far Right, and the Front National in particular.

The final, official scores of the candidates in the first round of the French presidential elections show Socialist Party candidate François Hollande in the lead with 28.63% of votes cast, followed by Nicolas Sarkozy at 27.18%. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is in third spot, with 17.9% of votes cast. Radical-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon sits fourth with 11.11%, while centre-right MoDem candidate François Bayrou is in fifth position with 9.13%. Of the remaining five candidates, Green party EELV’s Eva Joly scored 2.31%, Gaullist conservative Nicolas Dupont-Aignan 1.79%, far-left NPA party candidate Philippe Poutou 1.15%, the far-left Lutte Ouvrière party’s Nathalie Arthaud 0.56%, while maverick right Jacques Cheminade of the Solidarité et Progrès party came last with 0.25%. The abstention rate among all registered voters is estimated at 21.53%, compared with 16.23% in the first round of the last presidential elections, in 2007. Mediapart presents a graphic guide to how the major candidates scored region by region, the number of votes cast for each, the power balance between Right and Left, and how the situation compares with previous elections. 

© Vitrani/Reuters

Socialist Party candidate François Hollande and incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy are the winners of the first round of the French presidential elections held on Sunday, according to initial exit poll figures released after the voting ended at 8p.m. They gave Hollande, who took the overall lead, with between 27% and 29%, and Sarkozy with between 25% and 27%. The pair now go through to the final play off on May 6th. Meanwhile, far-right leader Marine Le Pen came in third position, with between 18% and 20% of the vote, the highest score ever obtained by her Front National party. It was a comfortable lead over her closest rival, radical-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who drew between 10.1% and 11.5%.

The French presidential elections finally begin Sunday, April 22nd, with the first-round eliminatory vote that will see just two candidates qualified for the final knock-out second round on May 6th. But just what are the issues for the French electorate, and what is the background to a poll that foreign observers describe as “one of the most interesting in decades” (CNN), “fascinating and worrisome” (Los Angeles Times), and with “the capacity not only to change the face of politics in France but Europe too” (The Guardian)? To better understand what is at stake and, importantly, as seen from within France, Mediapart presents here a selection of reports from its extensive campaign coverage.

After months of campaigning and thundering rhetoric, the French presidential elections finally get underway this coming Sunday with the first round of voting in what is a two-round poll. The two candidates who emerge with the highest scores on April 22nd will go on to a final play-off in the second round held two weeks later, on May 6th. The result of the approaching first round is far from decided in advance, while the stakes, amid a severe economic crisis, have never been greater. This simple guide explains how the presidential election system works, who the candidates are, the issues of debate and the factors at play for the outcome of the voting on Sunday.

Raymond Aubrac, one of France’s greatest wartime Resistance figures, who died aged 97 on April 10th, was laid to rest earlier this week in a ceremony with military honours at Les Invalides in Paris, where a choir sang the anthem of the Resistance movement, Le Chant des Partisans. His ashes were later buried in Burgundy alongside those of his wife and life-long companion Lucie, a heroine of the Resistance who died in 2007. The brevity of the tribute paid to Aubrac by the French presidential office highlighted the unease that the glorious dead can cause among the far-from-glorious living, writes Mediapart Editor-in-Chief Edwy Plenel, who pays tribute here to a man who espoused the cause of resistance right up to his death, and whose unfailing combat for equality, social justice and fraternity was fired by unvanquished optimism.

Paris is arguably the most sung about city in the world and now, for the first time in its history, an exhibition in sound and picture has been dedicated to the hundreds of songs and ballads about the capital reaching all the way back to the 16th century. Illustrating the enduring crush of generations of musicians for Paname, the popular nickname for Paris recurrent in 20th-century songs, the show is mirrored on an internet site that offers a virtual singing tour of the capital. Antoine Perraud reports.

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In what could become a judicial landmark in France, a group of 15 Black French citizens and others of Arab-origin, aged between 16 and 47, filed a lawsuit this week against the French State for having been subjected to racial profiling by police. They are demanding that the French Ministry of the Interior prove that the identity checks to which they were subjected by police have a legal basis and are not founded on the colour of their skin nor their ethnic background. Louise Fessard reports.

President Nicolas Sarkozy is under increasing pressure to explain how he financed his purchase of a luxurious apartment on an islet on the River Seine after information obtained by Mediapart now irrefutably confirms he did not, contrary to his claims, receive a loan worth 475,000 euros for the acquisition from the French parliament’s financial services. The revelation, provided by the French parliament’s financial and administrative commission, raises several crucial questions that the French president must now answer: why has he wrongly maintained since 2007 that he received 475,000 euros in a loan from the National Assembly? How did he raise the 282,000 euros unaccounted for in the acts of the property purchase, and from whom? Or did the property development company which sold him the apartment, and which benefitted from lucrative deals with the local town hall of which Sarkozy was then mayor and MP, offer the sum? Mathilde Mathieu and Michaël Hajdenberg report.

The marchers arrive in Paris.

With just two weeks to go before the first round of the French presidential elections, growing anger over the uncertain fate of one of the last major steel-making plants in France has returned the issues of de-industrialization, globalization and the social responsibility of corporations to the fore of the political agenda. Exhausted but triumphant, a group of workers from the ArcelorMittal steel mill in Florange, north-east France, finally reached Paris on Friday amid public cheers and a battery of TV cameras after a marathon ten-day, 330-kilometre march in protest at the feared closure of part of their plant. Mathieu Magnaudeix was there to follow the men, now known across France as ‘the ArcelorMittals’, who have become the heroes of a decimated industrial heartland.

When he was elected in 2007, French president Nicolas Sarkozy presented an ambitious programme to increase home ownership in France, raising the number of French households that are owner occupiers from 57% to 70%.  But five years on, despite introducing tax breaks and interest-free loan schemes, the figure has inched to just 58%, a similar increase to the previous five-year presidential term. Ellen Salvi reports on what went wrong.

Almost all the candidates in the French presidential election campaign, from the Far Right to the Radical Left, are championing protectionism, a rare issue on which there is such broad agreement. But the rhetoric doesn’t impress World Trade Organisation Director-General Pascal Lamy, who dismisses the protectionist vogue as one based on false premises and serving only to divert attention from the primary issue of French competitiveness. In this wide-ranging interview with Philippe Riès, Lamy argues that protectionism is fuelled by a French malaise towards the wider world, an issue that he says requires an “anthropolitical” approach.

No comment: N. Sarkozy questioned by Mediapart.

According to his own official declaration, President Nicolas Sarkozy has a personal wealth of 2.7 million euros. But mystery surrounds the financing of a property acquisition upon which a large part of the president’s private fortune is founded. Sarkozy has claimed that the purchase in 1997 of a luxurious apartment, which he sold in 2006 for 1,933,000 euros, was made possible thanks to a loan, when he was an MP, of some 457,000 euros from a financial service run by the French parliament. However, Mediapart can reveal that the loan is not mentioned, as it should be, in the sale agreement, published here. Furthermore, MPs were not entitled to a loan of more than 196,000 euros at the time of the purchase. Mathilde Mathieu and Michaël Hajdenberg report.

Chilean film director Raúl Ruiz brought a highly individual and sometimes surrealist approach to ostensibly factual subjects, taking them to new dimensions and challenging the viewer’s regard and understanding of events. Now, seven months after his death, the Paris international documentary festival Le Cinéma du Réel is showcasing his work, including some rare footage. Ludovic Lamant reports on what is a must-see event for every fan of the man who was arguably the most original director in contemporary cinema.

In 2055, the population of France is forecast to match and subsequently overtake that of Germany, currently the largest in western Europe, reports the French National Institute of Demographic Studies, INED.  Its study, published March 29th, examines the reasons behind this latest development in what has been a long history of reversing demographic trends between the two countries. It notably finds that while immigration has played but a minor role in the increase of the population in France, the fastest-growing in Europe, it represents a vital element for countering the continued aging and decrease of the population in Germany. Carine Fouteau reports.

A major criminal investigation into the affairs of L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, and notably the suspected illegal funding of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign, has established that at least 800,000 euros were withdrawn from her secret Swiss bank accounts when Sarkozy was running for the presidency. Last week Bettencourt’s long-serving wealth manager, Patrice de Maistre, was imprisoned after being placed under formal investigation for financial corruption and for abusing the mental frailty of the L’Oréal heiress, now aged 89. The move followed the placing under investigation, in February, of Eric Woerth, former budget minister and Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign treasurer, in connection with the suspected scam. Fabrice Arfi reports.

A Paris judge investigating the suspected illegal financing of former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur’s presidential election campaign has uncovered new and compelling evidence that he received a significant sum of cash siphoned off from a weapons deal with Saudi Arabia, Mediapart can reveal. The discovery, a major development in what has become known as 'the Karachi Affair', centres on cash withdrawn from a Swiss bank account belonging to a member of Kuwait’s ruling Al-Sabah family, Sheik Ibrahim Al-Duaij Al-Sabah. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report.

The initial information about Toulouse killer Mohamed Merah suggests that his is a story of modern France. While the Presidency and certain media commentators would like to stop all debate about what this event means for our society, the precise opposite is true. Like the earlier case of Algerian-born Khaled Kelkal, who was shot dead by gendarmes in 1995 after being implicated in a wave of bomb attacks in France, the story of Mohamed Merah holds up a mirror to society. And, says Mediapart editor François Bonnet, it raises vital questions for presidential candidates who seek to provide an alternative to the current presidency.

In 2007 the government under newly-elected President Nicolas Sarkozy launched a far-reaching series of reforms of the French state and its functions. These much-trumpeted measures were intended to modernise the country's administration – and save money. But though thousands of jobs have gone and some state services have become more expensive, there is little tangible proof that the changes have produced substantial savings. Lucie Delaporte reports.

The programme of the national council of the French Resistance movement, established in March 1944, demanded not only the guarantee of freedom of the press but also the respect of “its honour”, namely its “independence regarding the State [and] the power of capital”. The challenge for Mediapart when it was created four years ago, on March 16th 2008, was to put into practice those ideals and to prove their continued relevance today, writes Mediapart Editor-in-Chief, Edwy Plenel. That challenge was met, but the task now is to keep them solidly alive over the long term.

Brice Hortefeux (l) with ZiadTakieddine.© dr

After providing Mediapart with further information concerning allegations that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign was partly funded by former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the man at the centre of the controversy has now suddenly denounced a “crude manipulation” of his secret report detailing the alleged scam. Jean-Charles Brisard, a French expert on terrorism and terrorist financing, had earlier told Mediapart how Brice Hortefeux, (pictured with arms dealer Ziad Takieddine) a longstanding close friend and political aide of the French president and who is now vice-president of France’s ruling UMP party, was the “front” in a financial network set up for the secret funding of Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign by the Gaddafi regime. The Swiss-based consultant said he had a file containing “precise amounts, names, countries and dates.” Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report.

In the unfolding scandal of how Swedish furniture retail giant Ikea spied on its staff and customers in France, Mediapart has now obtained new evidence of how the chain engaged in illegally obtaining personal information about customers who lodged minor complaints with its stores over faulty goods - one involving a 200-euro cupboard - or delayed deliveries of their purchases. The cases again include the accessing of personal data from national French police files, and which could only be obtained by corrupting law enforcement officials. Mathilde Mathieu and Michaël Hajdenberg report. 

© (Reuters)

According to information contained in a confidential report prepared by a recognised French expert on terrorism and terrorist financing, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign received up to 50 million euros in secret funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The document, to which Mediapart has gained exclusive access and details of which are published here, suggests the money transited by a covert financial network, via Panama and a Swiss bank account, allegedly organized by Paris-based arms dealer Ziad Takieddine.