11 jours avant le 1er tour

FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SARKOZY SAYS
CHIRAC SHOULD BE TREATED 'WITH DIGNITY'

PARIS March 27, 2007 (IHT/AP) - "The law should be applied to everyone, but it should not hound anyone," Sarkozy was quoted as saying in the L'Express magazine interview, which was released Tuesday. "A former president of the republic should be treated with respect and dignity."

... Sarkozy, who head's Chirac's governing UMP party, has pledged not get to involved with any possible Chirac probes if he is elected. "That is what is asked of a president of the Republic — not to get involved in matters of the law," Sarkozy said earlier this month.

Huh? A president of the Republic is intimately bound up with matters of the law, if nowhere else than in his offices of promulgation and clemency. Perhaps Sarko meant that a president of the republic is not to interfere with judicial review of the law.

SARKOZY AGREED TO BURY CHIRAC CORRUPTION FILES

PARIS April 11, 2007 (AFP) - Quoting a "Chirac loyalist" from Sarkozy's governing UMP party, the weekly [Le Canard Enchaine] reported that "in exchange for Chirac's support for his candidacy, Sarkozy made a commitment, if he wins, to avoid any judicial backlash for Chirac."

Rather than a specific amnesty for corruption affairs, the weekly said Sarkozy would introduce an article, part of a new anti-crime bill, that would set a 10-year limit on the time a judge has to close a case.

No surprise here to anyone paying attention. Don't peek. Can you guess the next headline?

SARKOZY DENIES CHIRAC DEAL ON CORRUPTION PROBE

PARIS April 11, 2007 (AFP) - French right-wing presidential frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday denied a newspaper report that he had agreed to shield President Jacques Chirac from a corruption probe in exchange for his backing.

Sarkozy: "It's grotesque, it's hurtful and it's untrue. I deny it in the firmest and fullest terms."

Hurtful? Oh really. We thought Sarko was made of sterner stuff. That said, it is highly irregular in these sorts of deals for the granting party to publicly confess its future intent to banjax the law.

Chirac's office also denied the report, with an official saying: "These allegations, which are absolutely baseless, do not warrant a response."

Which, of course, is a not warranted response.

Other background posts can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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