Of course, a number of governments, including the late, unlamented one of Tony Blair, were prepared to hold their noses and do business with the now very dead former dictator of Libya, but this story about an alleged £42 million campaign contribution to Nicolas Sarkzoy in 2007, if true, would surely be the end of the diminutive president of France.
Excerpt:
“The “terms” for handing over the money were agreed in a meeting between the two men in Libya two years before Mr Sarkozy’s election, documents published by a French investigative website suggest.A memo obtained by the Mediapart site and handed to a judge alleges that the meeting on Oct 6, 2005 resulted in “campaign financing” of “NS [Nicolas Sarkozy]” being “totally paid”. At the time Mr Sarkozy was France’s interior minister with well-documented ambitions to succeed Jacques Chirac. Political financing laws ban candidates from receiving cash payments above €7,500 (£6,300) but Mediapart claims that €50”‰million mentioned in the memo were laundered through bank accounts in Panama and Switzerland.”
Of course, given the range of poisonous collectivists running for the job of French president, it is very much the case of “none of the above” if I were a citizen of that country and thinking about voting in the upcoming French elections this year.
Does this mean the Libyans, by proxy, owned our electricity?
Which reminds me, must not forget to pay my energy bill to the French government. Tsk.
More of getting rid of the lesser evil, a la Murdoch
Indeed, John.
OTOH though, at least Wassisname is openly socialist, while Wassername is openly xenophobic.
Vote for the crook; defeat the Socialist!
Oh I so want this to be true, don’t you? and it isn’t at all unlikely is it? How many French Presidents have been tainted by their hands being in the till since De Gaulle? All of them probably, but French Press and Privacy laws will never let us know exactly.
And even when the evidence is overwhelming, they try to say, well it wasn’t for me, it was for the party! Well that’s alright then isn’t it? Just like their EU bedmates the German Chancellors of old (and new for all we know).
Stauss Kahn was looking like a shoo in for President until his little personal weaknesses came to light. Oh none of our poor little public business indeed, his private life is his private life da yadda da yadda.
Well fuck that! In such matters I’m an old fashioned Anglo Saxon. If you can lie to your wife there’s fuck all stopping you lying to me.
This just highlights the preening self regard and imperious untouchability of these fuckers; they think they can get away with it, and not just get away with it, but deserve to get away with it, in their eyes.
The shortarsed fuckwit was reckoned to lose by every pundit I have read on the election so far, and this just nails it down. Then France gets a Socialist. Let’s see how long the Euro lasts then. Because it will be the end of the Merkozy love fest that’s for sure.
It would appear that Sarkozy is not an honest politician – he didn’t stay bought.
As Rich said, I can’t make myself care much.
Libya gave Sarkozy piles of money… and then he told the Libyan state to go screw itself and sent in French aircraft to encourage the other side in the civil war there.
I am tempted to view that much as I view campaign donations from neo-Nazis and other bigots – if you take their money, they can’t do anything wicked with it, and you can tell them to screw off.