Former French prime minister François Fillon said on Sunday he was a victim of a plot after a media report accused him of seeking to interfere in a legal case against Nicolas Sarkozy, his rival in the right-wing opposition, reports Reuters.
The newspaper Le Monde alleged that Fillon had told President François Hollande's chief of staff in June to speed up legal cases involving Sarkozy.
Speaking in the weekly Journal du Dimanche, Fillon said he had decided to file a legal complaint over Le Monde's report.
"I can't see anything in these ridiculous attacks other than a destabilization effort and conspiracy," said Fillon, who was prime minister for five years under Sarkozy.
Their UMP party, now the main opposition, has been rocked by crises since Sarkozy lost a 2012 re-election bid to Hollande, first over its leadership and most recently over alleged fraud in the financing of the campaign.
Fillon, Hollande's chief of staff Jean-Pierre Jouyet and a third participant at a June lunch have denied the allegation that Fillon urged the president's office to speed up legal proceedings against Sarkozy to undermine his political comeback.
The contretemps comes just weeks before elections to appoint a leader for the UMP, which Sarkozy is expected to win.
Le Monde said Jouyet told their reporters of his meeting with Fillon and during which a specific case related to Sarkozy's 2012 campaign financing was brought up.
"You know that if you don't hit him quickly, you'll let him come back, so act," Fillon is quoted by Jouyet as saying in Le Monde.
Fillon said the lunch had been at the behest of Jouyet, a former minister under Fillon and a close friend of Hollande.