Word: villepin
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...class between the petit bourgeois and the aristocrat; between the lofty, cerebral leadership figure and the pragmatic official driven to get things done - and it cuts across France's entire political landscape," says political analyst Stéphane Rozès, president of CAP, a consultancy. "Dominique de Villepin is a man of the 19th century whose weapons are words, while Nicolas Sarkozy is a postmodern man who wants action, not talk ... Each man represents a class of French politicians seeking ascendancy over one another." (See pictures of the French celebrating Bastille...
They may both belong to France's conservative party, but President Nicolas Sarkozy and former Prime Minister Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin could not be more different. Tall, elegant, and ostentatiously erudite, Villepin was a career diplomat who gained the Matignon without ever having run for office. Short, petulant and sparking with excessive energy, Sarkozy marched to the Elysée Palace by winning an election, using old-fashioned political grunt work and his Cabinet posts to establish a reputation for delivering results. Along the way, the two men's conflicting styles and rival aspirations turned them into bitter enemies...
This time the setting is a Paris criminal court, which is examining a smear campaign allegedly overseen by Villepin in 2004. The President and his backers maintain that those behind the smear, which linked Sarkozy to illegal kickbacks from arms sales, not only set out to derail his presidential bid but continued to use evidence of wrongdoing even when they knew that it was fraudulent. Villepin and his supporters deny any such campaign, and say Sarkozy is using the trial - and his presidential power to influence it - to pursue a personal vendetta. (See pictures of Nicolas Sarkozy...
That struggle is playing out in the same Paris courtroom in which a French revolutionary tribunal sentenced Marie Antoinette to the guillotine in 1793 (a detail that may not thrill history enthusiast Villepin). At the core of the trial is the Clearstream affair - a scandal named for the Luxembourg financial clearinghouse where 89 French politicians, businesspeople and public figures purportedly held accounts containing illegal kickback money from arms sales. A list of those names - including Sarkozy's - was brought to Villepin's attention in 2004, but was later deemed to be a fraud by a top French spy called...
Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin appeared in court Sept. 21 to face charges of slandering President Nicolas Sarkozy in an attempt to improve his chances in France's 2007 presidential election. The trial hinges on a convoluted case--l'affaire Clearstream--in which French officials, including Sarkozy, were falsely accused of stashing kickback money from arms deals in Clearstream, a Luxembourg bank. Villepin, who could face up to five years in prison, said he expects to be exonerated...