Mitterand phone tap accusations multiply

ALL week, French politicians have exchanged threats, denials and accusations in the scandal caused by the late President Francois Mitterrand's passion for phone tapping. After the Socialist party leader, Mr Lionel Jospin, demanded the lifting of secrecy laws in the case, his fellow Socialist, Mr Michel Charasse, accused Mr Jospin of using "inadmissible means to win elections".

Another Socialist official said the right was rigging a "posthumous Watergate" to disgrace Mitterrand. The satirical weekly Canard Enchaine reported that police from the DST, France's counter espionage agency, visited the garage where phone tapping archives were stored before the investigating magistrate was called in to remove documents showing that right wing politicians like the former defence minister, Mr Francois Leotard, also abused these powers. The Minister of the Interior, Mr Jean Louis Debre, denounced the Canard report as "seriously defamatory".

Mr Jean Glavany, once a top aide to Mitterrand, accused former president Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing of tapping Mitterrand's phone before the latter was elected. An angry Mr Giscard threatened to sue. Two former Mitterrand employees, Mr Gilles Menage and Mr Christian Prouteau, tried to blame one another. "I didn't run the phone taps," Mr Menage told Le Monde. Yet Mr Prouteau told investigating magistrate Jean Paul Valat he sent Mr Menage the transcripts.

At the heart of the scandal is the legitimacy of state secrecy and the conflict between individual freedom and government power. When Mr Menage announced that he intended to "free himself" unilaterally of the secrecy law to defend his own name and Mr Mitterrand's, the Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, announced that "the only person who can decide to lift secrecy laws is the Prime Minister". And Mr Juppe this week refused to do so. In theory, Mr Menage risks up to seven years in prison for revealing state secrets by co operating with the phone tapping investigation. By contrast, the offence for which he and 10 others stand indicted - breaching of privacy - carries a maximum one year sentence.

The actress and former Chanel model, Carole Bouquet, was allegedly among those tapped on Mr Mitterrand's orders. A satirical television programme joked that Ms Bouquet was placed under surveillance because of the threat she posed to the president's heart.