President Nicolas Sarkozy's electoral campaign pledge to create "irreproachable" government has been lost to a series of affairs involving ministers and acolytes serving their personal interests through public office. As his presidency approaches the four-year mark, Sophie Dufau presents some of the most notable examples of clannishness and cronyism that have characterised the Sarkozy administration almost from day one.
President Nicolas Sarkozy's appointment of veteran Gaullist politician Alain Juppé to the post of foreign affairs minister marked the consummation of a forced political marriage between two longstanding rivals (photo), celebrated in November. Marine Turchi charts their turbulent years of sniping and strife, all of which promise further fireworks ahead of next year's presidential elections.
Since the Karachi affair became public, with revelations that secret cash kickbacks from an arms deal may be linked to the murders of 11 French naval engineers, the Elysée Palace has been adamant that it "in no way concerns" President Nicolas Sarkozy (left). However, that line will become harder to maintain following evidence given to an examining magistrate by Alain Juillet, former number two of the French intelligence agency, the DGSE, and revealed here by Mediapart.
A former controller-general of the French armed forces told a parliamentary mission he was informed that former French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur financed his presidential election campaign with illegal kick-backs on the sale of submarines to Pakistan, Mediapart can reveal. The disclosure of Jean-Louis Porchier's testimony raises further questions about the role played by Balladur's then-budget minister and campaign spokesman, Nicolas Sarkozy (left on photo).
This article has been censored
A ruling by the Versailles court of appeal on July 4th 2013 has ordered that Mediapart must remove from its website all articles which contain extracts from the so-called ‘butler tapes’ at the heart of the Bettencourt affair. The penalty for not doing so is 10,000 euros per article per day (effective from July 21st). Mediapart has appealed against the ruling.
The arrival of Nicolas Sarkozy to the office of president has unquestionably ushered in a new era of French politics. But just what is Sarkozy-ism, his policies and regime? How is it changing French society and where is the opposition? Pierre Rosanvallon (pictured), a leading French political historian and thinker, offers his analysis in an interview with Mediapart.
It began with an article published by Mediapart. Now it has become known in France as l'affaire Karachi and dubbed 'Karachigate' by the international press. It is potentially one of the biggest French political scandals of the past two decades, engulfing President Nicolas Sarkozy along with a former president and two ex-prime ministers. Here we present a simple Q & A guide to help understand a complex and fast-moving story involving multi-billion-euro arms deals, political funding, shell companies, shadowy intermediaries - and the murders of 11 French naval engineers.
The French ministerial reshuffle in November appeared to announce the start of the 2012 presidential election campaign and an attempt to kickstart a government engulfed by scandals and social unrest. The new ministerial line-up saw a strengthening of ministers loyal to President Nicolas Sarkozy, a return of old-school Gaullists and the re-appointment of François Fillon as prime minister. It also saw the exit of the Centrists and figures from the renegade Left. Click here for Mediapart's reports and commentary, and the complete list of the new government team.
A key witness in the investigation into suspected illegal political funding in France from bribes allocated for the sale of French submarines to Pakistan has given testimony of a blackmail attempt against senior government figures, including Nicolas Sarkozy, in the months before the 2007 presidential elections and centred on allegedly compromising information about the kickbacks. We reveal here what he told a French judge.
Revelations from former French defence minister Charles Millon, testifying before an investigating magistrate, have led to calls that President Nicolas Sarkozy be questioned over arms deal kickbacks allegedly behind a bomb attack in which 11 French naval engineers were murdered in Pakistan.
The families of 11 French engineers killed in a bomb blast in Pakistan in 2002 want French President Nicolas Sarkozy to be formerly questioned by an investigating magistrate about what he knows of a corruption deal linked to the attack.The deal is suspected to have involved illegal political party funding in France, paid through secret kick-backs from the sale of submarines to Pakistan, a scam largely confirmed in November in the testimony, before a judge, of a former French defence minister.Mediapart, which has led the revelations over what is now known as 'the Karachi affair', has produced a video report clearly explaining the backround to the scandal now engulfing the French president. Click here to watch the video and to read a selection of Mediapart reports on the story.
Many observers have interpreted the recent French government reshuffle as a sign of weakness on the part of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. On the contrary, argues Mediapart editor François Bonnet, the president has prepared a savvy tactic for re-election.
The long-awaited French government reshuffle, completed Sunday evening, has ushered in a ministerial team largely composed of President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party stalwarts, in a move that appears to launch the president's bid for re-election in 2012. Out go the Centrist movement heavyweights, along with the few renegades from the Left. Géraldine Delacroix and Michaël Hajdenberg sketch who's who and who's no more, and present the complete list of new government members.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has re-appointed François Fillon as prime minister, and the long-awaited ministerial reshuffle has happened. The president hopes it will turn a political page on a volatile social crisis and the scandals rocking his presidency. But, argues Mediapart's Laurent Mauduit, the stage-managed media rumours surrounding the future government and an abscence of political debate before its composition speak volumes about the president's attachment to democracy as well as the extent of a crisis within his own political camp.
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