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Tag: sarkozy

  • Libya rebels ‘promised France 35% oil’

    Libya rebels ‘promised France 35% oil’

    FRANCE LIBYA Zionisms Ugly FaceParis – Libya’s rebels in April promised France 35 per cent of the country’s crude oil in exchange for supporting the National Transitional Council in its fight against Muammar Gaddafi, a French newspaper reported on Thursday.

    Liberation newspaper published a copy of a letter in Arabic from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Libya, the forerunner to the rebels’ council, addressed to Qatar, in which the rebels apparently refer to a deal to give 35% of Libya’s crude to France in return for supporting the rebellion.

    The letter, which was dated April 03, two weeks after the start of the military intervention in support of the rebels that France had championed, said the deal was struck with France “during the London summit”.

    An international conference on the conflict in Libya was held in London on March 29.

    France’s foreign ministry told Liberation it had no knowledge of the existence of the letter.

    An NTC representative was not immediately available to confirm the existence of such a letter.

    French oil giant Total is one of several players in the Libyan oil market. The biggest oil producer in Libya is Italy’s Eni.

    Eni and Total have been tipped to emerge as the biggest winners in the post-Gaddafi era, given the strong support shown by their countries for the rebels.

    – SAPA

    www.news24.com, 01.09.2011

  • Sarkozy took illegal cash from L’Oréal heiress, claims judge

    Sarkozy took illegal cash from L’Oréal heiress, claims judge

    New book rekindles speculation about corruption in run-up to 2007 election

    By John Lichfield in Paris

    loreal heires
    The 'Bettencourt affair' began with a family quarrel between the L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt , pictured, and her only daughter, Françoise Meyers-Bettencourt

    A judge will today accuse President Nicolas Sarkozy of accepting illegal cash contributions to his 2007 election campaign from France’s wealthiest woman.

    The accusation, levelled in a new book, threatens to launch an explosive new season of last summer’s long-running politico-financial soap opera known as “The Bettencourt Affair”.

    Judge Isabelle Prévost-Desprez tells the authors of the investigative book that pressure from the Elysée Palace forced her to be removed from her inquiries into political aspects of the affair. Earlier, she said she had received evidence from an eyewitness that Mr Sarkozy accepted a cash payment in 2007 from the L’Oréal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt, now 88.

    Under French law, individual campaign donations are limited to €7,500 (£6,626), of which only €150 may be given in cash. Another witness in the Bettencourt affair claimed last summer that cash payments had been made to Mr Sarkozy but later withdrew her accusation.

    The judge’s new claim was dismissed yesterday by leading Sarkozy allies as politically motivated. The Elysée Palace said: “These allegations are scandalous, unfounded and untruthful.”

    Opposition politicians, scenting political and electoral if not legal blood, demanded an independent inquiry. François Hollande, front-runner for the Socialist nomination to challenge Mr Sarkozy in the presidential election next spring, said the book added to suspicions that the Elysée Palace had interfered in the judicial system.

    The accusations by Judge Prévost-Desprez appear in a book by two investigative journalists from the Le Monde newspaper, Fabrice Lhomme and Gérard Davet. Sarko m’a tuer (Sarko Killed Me) traces the experiences of half a dozen people who claim their careers have been wrecked or derailed by the President for political or personal reasons since 2007.

    Judge Prévost-Desprez, president of the 15th chamber of the tribunal of Nanterre, to the west of Paris, says she has been “blacklisted” by the Elysée and her career sidelined.

    While investigating the political aspects of the Bettencourt affair, she said she was struck by the “fear” exhibited by witnesses called to give evidence on alleged financial dealings between Ms Bettencourt and Mr Sarkozy’s centre-right party, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP).

    One of them was Ms Bettencourt’s former nurse, who refused to give damning evidence in her statement but made revelations off the record. “Liliane Bettencourt’s nurse told my stenographer, after being questioned by me: ‘I saw cash payments to Sarkozy, but I couldn’t say it in my statement’,” Judge Prévost-Desprez is quoted as saying.

    The Bettencourt affair began as a family quarrel between the billionairess and her only child, Françoise Meyers-Bettencourt. A society photographer, François-Marie Banier, who had befriended Ms Bettencourt over many years, was accused of taking advantage of her age to take over €1bn in cash, bequests, art works and insurance policies. This aspect of the affair has now been settled out of court, although mother and daughter are once again quarrelling in public.

    www.independent.co.uk, 1 September 2011

  • Euro bail-out in doubt as ‘hysteria’ sweeps Germany

    Euro bail-out in doubt as ‘hysteria’ sweeps Germany

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel no longer has enough coalition votes in the Bundestag to secure backing for Europe’s revamped rescue machinery, threatening a consitutional crisis in Germany and a fresh eruption of the euro debt saga.

    merkel sarko
    Seething discontent in Germany over Europe's debt crisis has spread to all the key institutions. Photo: AP

    By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

    Mrs Merkel has cancelled a high-profile trip to Russia on September 7, the crucial day when the package goes to the Bundestag and the country’s constitutional court rules on the legality of the EU’s bail-out machinery.

    If the court rules that the €440bn rescue fund (EFSF) breaches Treaty law or undermines German fiscal sovereignty, it risks setting off an instant brushfire across monetary union.

    The seething discontent in Germany over Europe’s debt crisis has spread to all the key institutions of the state. “Hysteria is sweeping Germany ” said Klaus Regling, the EFSF’s director.

    German media reported that the latest tally of votes in the Bundestag shows that 23 members from Mrs Merkel’s own coalition plan to vote against the package, including twelve of the 44 members of Bavaria’s Social Christians (CSU). This may force the Chancellor to rely on opposition votes, risking a government collapse.

    Christian Wulff, Germany’s president, stunned the country last week by accusing the European Central Bank of going “far beyond its mandate” with mass purchases of Spanish and Italian debt, and warning that the Europe’s headlong rush towards fiscal union stikes at the “very core” of democracy. “Decisions have to be made in parliament in a liberal democracy. That is where legitimacy lies,” he said.

    A day earlier the Bundesbank had fired its own volley, condemning the ECB’s bond purchases and warning the EU is drifting towards debt union without “democratic legitimacy” or treaty backing.

    Joahannes Singhammer, leader of the CSU’s Bundestag group, accused the ECB of acting “dangerously” by jumping the gun before parliaments had voted. The ECB is implicitly acting on behalf of the rescue fund until it is ratified.

    A CSU document to be released on Monday flatly rebuts the latest accord between Chancellor Merkel and French president Nicholas Sarkozy, saying plans for an “economic government for eurozone states” are unacceptable. It demands treaty changes to let EMU states go bankrupt, and to eject them from the euro altogether for serial abuses.

    “An unlimited transfer union and pooling of debts for any length of time would imply a shared financial government and decisively change the character of a European confederation of states,” said the draft, obtained by Der Spiegel.

    Mrs Merkel faces mutiny even within her own Christian Democrat (CDU) family. Wolfgang Bossbach, the spokesman for internal affairs, said he would oppose the package. “I can’t vote against my own conviction,” he said.

    The Bundestag is expected to decide late next month on the package, which empowers the EFSF to buy bonds pre-emptively and recapitalize banks. While the bill is likely to pass, the furious debate leaves no doubt that Germany will resist moves to boost the EFSF’s firepower yet further. Most City banks say the fund needs €2 trillion to stop the crisis engulfing Spain and Italy.

    Mrs Merkel’s aides say she is facing “war on every front”. The next month will decide her future, Germany’s destiny, and the fate of monetary union.

    www.telegraph.co.uk, 28 Aug 2011

  • Sarkozy willing to attend UN summit in İstanbul

    Sarkozy willing to attend UN summit in İstanbul

    French President Nicolas Sarkozy has more than once voiced his intention to participate at an upcoming a UN conference to be held in Turkey, which has been arranged in the format of a UN General Assembly meeting, because all 192 members will be represented at the summit, Turkish officials said on Monday.

    Turkey hosted a meeting of foreign ministers from the Least Developed Countries in 2007. It is now preparing to host a summit of the LDCs next month.
    Turkey hosted a meeting of foreign ministers from the Least Developed Countries in 2007. It is now preparing to host a summit of the LDCs next month.

    Most recently, Sarkozy indicated his intention to participate in the fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in late February, during his first visit to Turkey since being elected in 2007, Turkish Ambassador Mithat Rende, told reporters on Monday at a press briefing on the upcoming summit, which will be hosted by Turkey in İstanbul on May 9-13.

    However, official confirmation of Sarkozy’s participation has not yet been conveyed to Turkey and the UN. Meanwhile, officials at the French Embassy in Ankara recently said that France will be represented by a delegation led by Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire.

    The summit in İstanbul, one in a series of conferences to help poorer nations improve prosperity and infrastructure, will be in the format of a UN General Assembly meeting which will include around 60 heads of state and government, more than 100 ministers and deputy ministers, as well as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and heads of governing bodies of the UN system, such as the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

    Sarkozy’s willingness to participate in the conference is apparently related to a strong presence of Francophone countries on the list of LDCs, which currently total 48 according to a classification by a related UN resolution, Ankara-based observers said. Another fact for his willingness might well be the desire not to miss a photo opportunity at a summit which will bring key global leaders together, the same observers said.

    During his first visit to Turkey since being elected in 2007, Sarkozy underlined Turkey’s importance as a political and economic actor but repeated in the clearest terms his well-known opposition to Turkey’s membership in the European Union. Sarkozy had talks with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his brief, working visit aimed primarily at winning Ankara’s support for his goals during France’s term at the helm of the G20.

    Ankara expects Israeli participation

    Not only has Israeli President Shimon Peres been invited to the UN conference, but, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has also conveyed invitations to his counterparts in the Israeli government for the summit, Rende said in response to questions, while noting that Ankara has received no official confirmation of participation by Israel yet. However, Ankara does expect participation from Israel, Rende added.

    Meanwhile, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme are among those who want to deliver opening speeches at the summit, officials said.

    The invitations to the related parties were simultaneously sent both by the UN and Turkey around two months ago. Controversial figures such as Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir are among those who received invitations. The recipients of the UN invitations are the administrations who are accredited to the UN as representatives of their countries. Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan has yet confirmed their participation, Rende said, in response to a question.

    İstanbul: UN zone

    The Lütfi Kırdar Convention and Exhibition Center and the İstanbul Congress Center in Harbiye will be the venues of the summit. Since the summit will be held in the format of a UN General Assembly meeting, the area of these facilities will be declared a “UN zone,” with the UN flag flying at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress Center from May 6 until the summit closes.

    UN forces will be working along with Turkish police during the summit. “Turkey has the experience and the capacity for maintaining security at a huge summit like this, that’s why we don’t have a particular security concern,” Rende said.

     

  • Cables show Sarkozy does not want Turkey in EU

    Cables show Sarkozy does not want Turkey in EU

    Thomas Seibert

    Last Updated: Dec 3, 2010

    ISTANBUL // One evening last year, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, was circling over Paris in his plane, when his advisers suddenly told pilots to change course.

    They wanted to prevent the president, an outspoken opponent of Turkish membership to the European Union, from laying eyes on the Eiffel Tower. At the time, the tower was lit up in the Turkish national colours in honour of a visit of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister.

    The incident, reported by diplomats of the US Embassy in Paris in a memo in December last year and published this week by WikiLeaks, offers a glimpse of how adamant Mr Sarkozy’s opposition to Turkey’s EU bid is.

    A number of WikiLeaks cables spanning several years and written by US diplomats in Paris and Ankara suggest that it will be very hard, if not impossible, for Turkey to overcome European, and especially French, resistance to its wish to join the EU.

    “Whatever the ramifications of keeping Turkey out, he opposes bringing 70 million Muslims into Europe,” one US cable from 2007 said about Mr Sarkozy.

    In a meeting with Philip Gordon, the US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, in September last year, French government officials said they hoped that Turkey itself would give up its EU accession talks that have dragged on since 2005 without much progress.

    Jean-David Levitte, a French presidential adviser, told Mr Gordon that “Paris hopes that it will be the Turks themselves who realise that their role is best played as a bridge between the two worlds of Europe and Asia, rather than anchored in Europe itself”.

    Turkey, a Muslim-majority country bordering Iran, Iraq and Syria, has repeatedly rejected calls from France and Germany to accept a “privileged partnership” with the EU instead of full membership.

    Ankara says it is determined to stick to the negotiation process despite resistance by France and other EU countries. All 27 EU members have to accept the application of a new member state.

    Although it is the ultimate aim of Turkey’s EU talks for the country to fulfil all accession criteria by completely implementing EU law, known as the acquis communautaire, this possibility is a horror scenario for the French, according to the US cables. Mr Levitte, the French advisor, “predicted that a worse case scenario would be if Turkey finally manages to complete the acquis and end negotiations and a public referendum is held in France which is finally opposed to their membership”.

    Memos written by US embassy officials in Ankara express Turkish frustration with Mr Sarkozy and with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who also favours a “privileged partnership”.

    There was “a sense in Turkey of distance from and lack of sympathy for Europe”, US diplomats in Ankara wrote in January this year. “Both popular and elite Turkish opinion has recently grown much more pessimistic about eventual EU membership.”

    The memos also record Israeli concerns that the rejection Turkey has encountered in the EU is pushing the country towards the Muslim world, with Israel having to pay the price in seeing its ties to its long-standing partner deteriorate.

    Israeli officials told their French counterparts in October last year “that if Europe had more warmly embraced Turkey, then the Turks would not be taking steps to earn approval in the Arab and Muslim world at the expense of Israel”. The French “begged to differ”.

    But there is not only scepticism in Europe towards Turkey’s EU bid, but also within the ruling party in Ankara itself, US diplomats wrote. Some members of the more Islamist wing in Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, had their doubts about the EU project, they wrote in 2004.

    While some members of the religious AKP wing “assert that it is only through Turkish membership and spread of Turkish values that the world can avoid the clash of civilisations they allege the West is fomenting, others express concern that harmonisation and membership will water down Islam and associated traditions in Turkey”, the cable said. Next page

    via Cables show Sarkozy does not want Turkey in EU.

  • Police search Sarkozy party HQ in L’Oreal investigation

    Police search Sarkozy party HQ in L’Oreal investigation

    MP party chief Xavier Bertrand says that police searched the party headquarters in Paris on Wednesday as part of their ongoing investigation into the alleged involvement of Labour Minister Eric Woerth in the L’Oreal scandal.

    French police probing a party financing scandal linked to L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt have searched the headquarters of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s majority UMP, the party said Thursday.

    Police from the financial investigations squad searched the Paris headquarters on Wednesday afternoon, the party’s leader Xavier Bertrand said, in the latest development of the months-long scandal.

    Several judicial investigations are under way into affairs linked to Bettencourt’s fortune, including allegations of tax evasion and illegal campaign funding that have implicated Labour Minister Eric Woerth.

    The party’s director general Eric Cesari told AFP the police had come to look for “correspondance between Eric Woerth and Patrice de Maistre”, the manager of Bettencourt’s 17-billion-euro (22-billion-dollar) fortune.

    Woerth was previously UMP treasurer and head fundraiser for Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign. He has been accused of a conflict of interest because his wife worked for Maistre, helping manage the billionairess’s estate.

    Woerth denies any wrongdoing but has been politically weakened and the long-running investigation has undermined his and Sarkozy’s attempt to push through pensions reform.

    Cesari said police had announced their visit and spent an hour a half at the headquarters checking archives, but did not take anything with them.

    Police told AFP the search was ordered by a prosecutor in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre who is investigating various aspects of Bettencourt’s affairs and allegations implicating Woerth.

    The magazine Paris Match reported on its website that investigators were searching for a letter sent by Woerth to Sarkozy in March 2007 in which Woerth called for Maistre to receive France’s top state honour, the Legion d’Honneur.

    France 24