A FRENCH inquiry into claims of illegal party financing has dealt a blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party by placing a former senior minister under formal investigation for influence peddling.
Eric Woerth, formerly Mr Sarkozy's budget minister and treasurer of the UMP, was mis en examen– a step short of formal charges – after being questioned in relation to alleged illegal campaign donations by the L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
He is suspected of using his position to secure the Légion d’Honneur – one of France’s highest honours – for the man who managed Ms Bettencourt’s fortune, after Mr Woerth’s wife was hired by the family’s holding company.
The Bettencourt affair began as a family inheritance dispute but grew into an explosive political scandal in the summer of 2010 after allegations that Mr Woerth had obtained illegal financing for the UMP from the heiress, who is France’s richest woman.
Mr Woerth left the government at the end of 2010 after months of fending off accusations and in 2011 police carried out searches of his home and the UMP’s offices in connection with the case.
If found guilty of influence peddling, he could face up to 10 years in prison and a €150,000 fine. However, the inquiry did not cite the former minister as being investigated on suspicion of having obtained illegal funding for the party.
The news comes at a bad time for Mr Sarkozy, who is preparing for a difficult re-election campaign and trails the frontrunner, socialist François Hollande, by a significant margin in all recent opinion polls.
Ms Bettencourt’s one-time book-keeper Claire Thibout reportedly claimed 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 and Mr Sarkozy strongly deny any wrongdoing.
The Bettencourt affair led to a separate scandal when the newspaper Le Mondeclaimed the intelligence services had obtained the phone records of one of its reporters in an attempt to trace the source of his stories on the party-funding saga. The government has admitted obtaining the records, and both the head of the domestic intelligence agency and a prominent prosecutor have been placed under investigation.