THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: France's Nicolas Sarkozy has angrily denied claims he received money from deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to fund his first presidential run in 2007.
Website Mediapart said that the Libyan regime gave 50 million euros (£42 million) to Sarkozy's campaign, citing a document being used to investigate a 2002 bombing in the Pakistani city of Karachi, which killed 11 French citizens.
The report comes just six weeks before the first round of the presidential election on April 22.
"If he (Gaddafi) had financed it, then I haven't been very grateful," Sarkozy said when a journalist asked about the report on TF1 television.
In March 2011, as France and Britain spearheaded air strikes against Libya, Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam told Euronews TV that Libya had financed Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign, which the president's office also denied at the time.
Sarkozy lashed out at the journalist who asked him about the report and al-Islam's claim, accusing her of sympathising with the younger Gaddafi, who is being held by a Libyan militia.
"I am sorry for you that you are the spokeswoman for Gaddafi's son," Sarkozy said, visibly angered by the question. » | Reuters | Tuesday, March 13, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: France election 2012: support for François Hollande will crumble, Nicolas Sarkozy's oracle predicts – Fascinating prediction of Francois Hollande's electoral demise today by Patrick Buisson, Nicolas Sarkzoy's public opinion eminence grise. » | Henry Samuel | Tuesday, March 13, 2012
