THE ÉLYSÉE Palace has denied new claims that Nicolas Sarkozy took cash payments from L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt before his 2007 presidential campaign.
The allegations, recounted by a prominent judge in a book to be published today, have reignited a long-running political scandal that has dogged Mr Sarkozy’s government and led to a senior minister’s resignation last year.
In the book, written by two Le Mondejournalists, the investigating magistrate who led the inquiry into the so-called Bettencourt affair, Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, says a witness claimed to have seen the heiress hand sums of cash to Mr Sarkozy while he was campaigning for the presidency in 2007.
Ms Prévost-Desprez says she was “struck by the witnesses’ fear” in the Bettencourt case – a family feud that grew into a major financial and political scandal. According to excerpts from the book, the judge says Ms Bettencourt’s nurse confided to her legal clerk that she witnessed cash being handed over to Mr Sarkozy but could not say as much in official testimony.
Mr Sarkozy’s office strongly rejected the claims, saying they were “scandalous, unfounded and untruthful”.
Senior members of the ruling UMP party said the allegations were aimed at damaging Mr Sarkozy at a crucial time in the electoral calendar. “We’re only a few months away from the presidential election, so let’s not be fooled by anything,” secretary general Jean-François Copé told Canal+ television.
“When one has accusations to make, they should be made not in a book or in the press but before the justice system,” said budget minister Valérie Pécresse. “It’s the justice system that establishes the truth in this country and the method used [by Ms Prévost-Desprez] is unusual to say the least.” Although Ms Prévost-Desprez has been regarded as a thorn in Mr Sarkozy’s side for some time, such a direct challenge to a sitting president from a senior judge is rare. Libération, which carried the excerpts yesterday, called it “a political thunderbolt without precedent in this history of the republic”.
Ms Prévost-Desprez led the Bettencourt case at the outset, before it was taken out of her hands and moved to a trio of judges in Bordeaux amid claims that she had overstepped her authority. Some speculated yesterday that she could now face professional disciplinary action for her latest comments.
As the allegations recounted in the book were never given in official testimony, they carry no legal significance. The political fallout came swiftly, however, with the Bettencourt scandal returning to the front pages nine months after it seemed to have been defused by the sacking of then budget minister Eric Woerth and a rapprochement between members of the Bettencourt family. Socialist Party presidential hopeful Martine Aubry called for a new inquiry into the allegations.
The Bettencourt affair first surfaced in spring 2010, when billionaire’s daughter Françoise Meyers-Bettencourt sued photographer François-Marie Banier, a friend of the heiress, claiming that he was swindling her mother out of large sums of money.
The subsequent investigation quickly grew into a broad political scandal, involving allegations of influence-peddling involving Mr Woerth and illegal financing of the UMP.
Ms Bettencourt’s one-time book-keeper Claire Thibout reportedly claimed last year that a number of political figures, including Mr Sarkozy, received large cash donations from Ms Bettencourt, but she then partially amended her statement and denied saying Mr Sarkozy had been a recipient.
French law limits donations to political parties to €7,500 per person per year, while only €150 may be given in cash.
Mr Woerth strongly denies any wrongdoing and Ms Bettencourt (88) has said she has no memory of giving him money.