THE TELEGRAPH: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's attempt to defuse rumours she and her husband were having affairs has backfired after it emerged Nicolas Sarkozy ordered French counter-intelligence to find out who was behind the rumours.
The revelation came just three hours after the president's wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy went on air to deny there was any inquiry into speculation the couple's marriage was in trouble.
The first lady's radio interview was designed to counter claims that her husband believed the rumours of infidelity were part of an international conspiracy against France, but her damage limitation exercise backfired on one crucial point.
Press reports on Wednesday said that President Sarkozy ordered the DCRI, France's counterespionage service, to root out the source of unsubstantiated rumours that both he and his wife were having affairs. The reports said as part of the inquiry, Rachida Dati, the former justice minister, was bugged and subsequently declared persona non grata by the Elysée. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Thursday, April 08, 2010
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Various articles on this story both in English and French >>>
THE GUARDIAN: The French president's techniques to uncover the source of rumours would not have been out of place in the ancien régime
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy sounded like an 18th-century first lady who lunches, when she appeared live on French national radio to laugh off rumours about infidelity at the Élysée Palace. "Non," she purred, there was nothing in the silly claims. She had not fallen for a hunky young pop singer called Benjamin Biolay and, "non", her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy, was not being comforted by a young minister-come-karate champion called Chantal Jouanno. Moreover, there would be no possibility of revenge against the disloyal underlings accused of spreading the gossip – particularly former justice minister Rachida Dati who, Carla added ominously, remained "our friend".
So that was that all sorted then? Pas du tout! Forgetting all the grim allusions to affairs of state (or inter-ministerial "karaoke sessions" as one of Sarkozy's more entertaining wives once described them), what the latest scandal teaches us is that the court of the French head of state is as vindictive and cruel as it was in the days of Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis XVI.
Within hours of Bruni-Sarkozy's devastating reference to Dati, the former head of the DCRI, the Gallic version of MI5, appeared on another radio station to confirm that he had been ordered to find and punish the blabbermouth. This was not long after Dati, who is now an MEP, had been stripped of her chauffeur-driven car, three bodyguards and even governmental smart phone. >>> Nabila Ramdani | Friday, April 09, 2010
