Both camps are straining to fend off a torrent of abuse from the other side, writes RUADHÁN MAC CORMAICin Paris
GONE IS any pretence of civility or mutual respect. With the campaign in its final week and the stakes higher than ever, the French presidential election has descended into one of the most vicious in memory.
Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande contest the run-off on Sunday, but their policy differences were sidelined yesterday as both camps strained to fend off a torrent of abuse and insinuation from the other side.
“So far I’ve been spared a comparison with Hitler, but we are only at the beginning of the week,” Mr Sarkozy remarked, defending his pursuit of National Front votes.
The incumbent, trailing Mr Hollande by 53 per cent to 47 per cent in the latest opinion polls, claimed to have been compared to Francisco Franco, António de Oliveira Salazar and Philippe Pétain.
Mr Hollande’s camp has not been spared. Just days after the socialist candidate’s partner was called a “Rottweiler”, the incumbent’s allies seized on reports that three Hollande aides attended a party with Dominique Strauss-Kahn in Paris at the weekend.
All three said they were not aware the former IMF managing director would be there, and left as soon as they found out.
The pro-Sarkozy Le Figaro ran a big picture of Mr Strauss-Kahn on its front page, and Mr Sarkozy took every opportunity to remind the public of the socialists’ close ties to Mr Strauss-Kahn, whose arrest on sexual assault charges last year made him persona non grata in French politics.
“A few months ago, the whole of the Socialist Party dreamed of a candidate named Dominique Strauss-Kahn,” said Mr Sarkozy.
As it hunts for far-right votes, Mr Sarkozy’s campaign has tried to portray Mr Hollande as soft on immigration and national identity.
Mr Sarkozy claimed falsely that “700 mosques” had called for a Hollande victory, and that the socialist had received an endorsement from controversial Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan.
At the weekend a deputy from Mr Sarkozy’s party claimed that Mr Hollande’s spokeswoman, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, was a member of the Council for the Moroccan Community Abroad. Ms Vallaud-Belkacem said she left the organisation in December 2011.
But all of these controversies have been eclipsed by a report by investigative website Mediapart, which said it had proof that former Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy had agreed to pay €50 million for Mr Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign.
Mediapart, run by former Le Monde editor Edwy Plenel, said it had obtained a document bearing the signature of Libya’s former foreign intelligence chief, Moussa Koussa. The letter was addressed to Bashir Saleh, Gadafy’s former chief of staff and head of Libya’s $40 billion (€30 billion) sovereign wealth fund.
Mr Saleh’s lawyer said he had “grave reservations” about the document, however, while Mr Koussa, who lives in Qatar, said the allegations were false.
The Socialist Party called for an inquiry into the report. But Mr Sarkozy said he would sue Mediapart, and his allies claimed the website was funded by socialists.
The political battle will shift to the street today. While Mr Hollande will attend a memorial ceremony for socialist former prime minister Pierre Bérégovoy, who took his own life in May 1993, his Socialist Party colleagues will join the annual Labour Day march in Paris. Just a few kilometres away, Mr Sarkozy will address his rival rally at Trocadéro.
A more direct confrontation comes tomorrow, when Mr Sarkozy and Mr Hollande face one another in their only head-to-head debate of the campaign. Opinion is divided on the impact of such debates on the outcome of a run-off, but Mr Sarkozy’s performance against Ségolène Royal in 2007 gave him added momentum in the final days of that campaign.
ELECTION DIARY RED FACES AT DSK DINNER, TIPS FOR THE NEXT PM, POLLING THE PUBLIC
Dining with DSK
If there is anyone François Hollande doesn’t want to be talking about in public six days before the run-off, it’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Nicolas Sarkozy’s team is well aware of this, which is why it seized on reports that three senior members of the Hollande campaign were at a party attended by DSK in Paris on Saturday night.
The event was a birthday celebration for the socialist politician Julien Dray, who invited members of Hollande’s team but didn’t warn them that Strauss-Kahn was also on the list. Just after midnight, a journalist from the news magazine Le Point tweeted two photographs taken outside the restaurant on rue Saint Denis – one apparently showed Hollande’s spokesman Manuel Valls, the other DSK.
“When you see the circus around this birthday dinner . . . with Mr Strauss-Kahn on rue Saint Denis – you couldn’t make this stuff up. You wonder what the Socialists are thinking,” Sarkozy told French television, obliquely reminding viewers that the street where the restaurant is located is renowned for prostitution.
Dray could scarcely have picked a more unfortunate venue. Le Parisien reported yesterday that the bar-restaurant, on the site of a former sex shop, invites diners to choose from a novelty sex-themed menu.
Who will be PM?
One of the questions exercising politics watchers in Paris is who will become prime minister under the next president. An opinion poll yesterday found that Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry would be the most popular choice if Hollande won, while foreign minister Alain Juppé would be the preferred choice if Sarkozy prevailed. Juppé is thought to have a good chance, not least because Sarkozy has said he would appoint an experienced figure. Aubry is one of the contenders if Hollande wins, but their difficult relationship could scupper her chances. Jean-Marc Ayrault, president of the socialist group in the lower house, is the current favourite. His Germanophilia, and fluent German, could help Hollande build a relationship Angela Merkel.
The €6 million questions
Nicolas Sarkozy has been lashing out at opinion pollsters, questioning the value of polls and accusing them of having misread the public mood. However, a councillor in Grenoble says documents show that between June 2007 and July 2008, Sarkozy commissioned 264 polls at a cost of €6.35 million. According to the councillor, Raymond Avrillier of the Greens, one of the surveys canvassed public opinion on whether he should marry Carla Bruni.