François Hollande, France’s Socialist president, promised an “exemplary” government. His centre-right predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, pledged an “irreproachable republic”. Yet new revelations have exposed dodgy goings-on under both left and right, reports The Economist.
In March Mr Hollande’s budget minister, Jérôme Cahuzac, resigned after lying to parliament about a secret Swiss bank account. Now an inquiry into a €403m ($590m) arbitration payout to Bernard Tapie, a colourful French businessman, is closing in on a circle at the heart of power under Mr Sarkozy.
Investigators want to know how the case led to such a favourable arbitration. On June 24th they hauled in Mr Tapie for questioning. A maverick ex-Socialist politician and former owner of Olympique de Marseilles football club, who has served time in both government and prison, Mr Tapie has long argued he was cheated by Crédit Lyonnais bank when it sold Adidas, a sports outfitter he had owned, in the mid-1990s.
The bank was rescued from bankruptcy by the state, and a publicly owned consortium took over its assets. A long dispute between the state and Mr Tapie was referred to a private arbitration panel by Christine Lagarde, then finance minister and now boss of the IMF. In 2008 the panel gave Mr Tapie a huge payout, including €45m in “moral damages”.
Read more of this report from The Economist.