The French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, yesterday denied any government role in a botched police arson attack in Corsica that has compromised his tough law-and-order policies there, and threatened to soil his Mr Clean image. The Socialist leader, facing his first serious scandal in two years in office, dissolved the antiterrorist unit that set fire to a beach restaurant near Ajaccio in the bizarre plot last month that has brought down the island's powerful Prefect.
Amid boos and catcalls from the conservative opposition, Mr Jospin and his Justice Minister, Ms Elisabeth Guigou, vowed to push ahead with a ferocious crackdown started on the Mediterranean island last year after the previous prefect was assassinated.
"No senior official - neither the interior minister, nor the defence or justice ministers, nor the prime minister or any of my closest aides - had any inkling or information about this criminal act before it was committed," Mr Jospin said.
The Prefect, Mr Bernard Bonnet, the leading representative for Corsica of the Paris government, and his deputy have been detained for questioning, an unprecedented step for such high officials. Two more policemen were placed under investigation yesterday, bringing to six the number of officers involved.
Mr Jospin said Mr Bonnet had been relieved of his duties and would be officially replaced at a cabinet meeting today.
The Prime Minister rejected opposition suggestions that he had a secret dirty tricks unit or "black cabinet", a reference to the cloak-and-dagger operatives for the French kings.