Mediapart has obtained the rushes, hitherto unseen in public, of a video interview with Ziad Takieddine, a key witness in the probe into the alleged Libyan funding of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign, in which the Franco-Lebanese business intermediary retracted his earlier testimony detailing how Sarkozy received the cash sums from Tripoli. The video was broadcast as an edited 32-second “exclusive” in November 2020 by French rolling news channel BFMTV, before Takieddine, who had been promised payment, finally disowned his retraction and an investigation into “witness tampering” was launched. The unedited video rushes, published in this report, reveal the extent of the manipulation by BFMTV in operation dubbed “Save Sarko”. Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget report.
In November 2020, a key witness in the French judicial investigation into alleged funding by the Gaddafi regime of former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign publicly retracted his testimony. French-Lebanese business intermediary Ziad Takieddine had previously detailed how he brought suitcases of cash from Tripoli to Paris for Sarkozy’s campaign. A separate judicial investigation into “witness tampering” subsequently established that Takieddine had been promised several million euros to retract his allegations. Mediapart can now reveal how, illustrated by a remarkable exchange of phone text messages, the management of France’s rolling news channel BFMTV, which broadcast a video of Takieddine’s retraction, connived with the attempt to undermine the Libyan funding probe. Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget report.
Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, the Member of the European Parliament who negotiated a Russian loan for France's far-right Rassemblement National, runs a foundation which received hundreds of thousands of euros in return for speeches in the Parliament that were favourable to Moscow, according to emails seen by Mediapart. When questioned about this Marine Le Pen, who was president of the party at the time of the Russian loan, did not respond. Marine Turchi reports.
Bernard Arnault has got his hands on the French capital. On top of the 200 or so LVMH addresses counted by Mediapart in the city, the luxury goods multinational run by the billionaire is quietly appropriating symbolic locations for itself, with the approval of city hall. This Mediapart investigation into the group's raid on Paris has been carried out by Dan Israel, Martine Orange, Khedidja Zerouali and Florence Loève.
In April this year President Emmanuel Macron was filmed playing alongside celebrities and former football stars in a charity match to raise money for young people in hospital. But behind this and other similar charity football games there is also a lucrative business. Captains of industry are being charged up to 75,000 euros for each star-studded encounter, which buys them media exposure and a place at a post-match dinner held at the Elysée. As Antton Rouget reports, the money raised from this is not given to charities. Instead, the proceeds are going to a company owned by the son of the veteran sports journalist who runs the charity involved in the matches.
In a number public hospitals around France, the staff rooms of junior doctors – where they take meals and hold parties – are painted with sexist and pornographic frescos. While often these are scenes of orgies involving caricatures of consultants and junior doctors, at least one depicted the rape of a health minister. Last year the health authorities ordered hospitals to remove the frescos, but as Mediapart reports here, many have not done so because of opposition, not least from elder doctors, against a “cancel culture”. Meanwhile, feminist activists say the hospital murals are perpetuating a “an apologia of the culture of rape”. Prisca Borrel and Caroline Coq-Chodorge report.
The organisation tasked with combating sexism in French society, the Haut Conseil à l’Égalité entre les Femmes et les Hommes (HCE), is itself in the middle of a crisis, according to internal documents and testimonies from staff and former staff obtained by Mediapart. Its president Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette, whose comments on a variety of topics have outraged employees at the HCE, said she had no intention of “explaining” herself to Mediapart. Sarah Brethes reports.
In March and April health and safety inspectors stopped work at three high-profile Olympic sites because of safety concerns. The officials decided that parts of the sites, at Versailles, the Place de la Concorde in Paris and the Eiffel Tower, were too dangerous for workers. Work has since resumed and the organisers say the work interruptions have not affected their scheduled timetable for the Games which start in July. But as Dan Israel reports, health and safety officials are now keeping a close eye on the company involved, GL Events, whose boss was one of the first backers of Emmanuel Macron's bid to become president.
A judge close to justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti, and who is suspected of having been compromised by the Corsican mafia and of having misused more than 100,000 euros of public money, was remanded in custody in the early hours of Saturday April 6th. Hélène Gerhards – who denies any wrongdoing - had earlier been formally placed under investigation for some ten alleged offences as the judicial probe into the case continues. As Fabrice Arfi reports, it is unprecedented for a serving French judge to be remanded in custody in this way.
Prince Albert II of Monaco is facing the biggest internal crisis this city-state has known for many years, against a backdrop of endemic corruption and a merciless war between rival clans. Fabrice Arfi and Antton Rouget report on the claims and counterclaims being made inside this tiny but ultra-wealthy principality.
