FRENCH SOCIALIST Ségolène Royal found herself at the receiving end of a furious centre-right backlash yesterday after she accused President Nicolas Sarkozy of presiding over a “corrupted system”.
Ms Royal, her party’s defeated candidate in the 2007 presidential election, returned to the spotlight with a television appearance aimed at intensifying the pressure on a government reeling from a series of revelations about ministers’ expenses and waste of public funds.
She denounced “a power that mixes up the private good and the public good” while “losing all sense of the common good”. She added that “the Sarkozy system is today corrupted.”
The government is resisting opposition calls for an inquiry following allegations that labour minister Eric Woerth had a conflict of interest because his wife worked for a firm which gave financial advice to the wealthy L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. French authorities are investigating Ms Bettencourt’s financial affairs after it was alleged she had sought to evade taxes.
While Mr Woerth has strongly denied any wrongdoing and the government insists he is being targeted because he is overseeing controversial pension reform, the row has been damaging for the government as it follows a series of embarrassing revelations about ministers spending public money on expensive cigars, luxury hotels and trips on private jets.
Ms Royal’s sharp escalation of opposition rhetoric provoked an indignant reaction from the ruling UMP bloc. “These are words of hatred that bring to mind those of Marine Le Pen,” said Jean-François Copé, president of the UMP group in the National Assembly, referring to the woman widely expected to become the next leader of the far-right National Front.
Government spokesman Luc Chatel accused Ms Royal of going too far. “I remember Madame Royal during the presidential campaign of 2007 explaining to us that she wished to promote a republic of respect. And yet she is going in for the republic of slander.”
Eric Besson, the immigration minister who defected from the Socialist Party and was previously a close adviser to Ms Royal, said she had again “proved her capacity to say anything to try to get noticed”.
“She is losing momentum internally in the Socialist Party, and the more she is extreme, the more she is crude, the more she thinks she can be revived,” Mr Besson said.
Speculation persists about whether Ms Royal will seek the Socialist Party’s nomination for the 2012 presidential election, but her recent low profile and the rise of her two principal rivals – Martine Aubry, the party leader; and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund – led many to conclude that her chance had passed.
Keen to mollify voters after recent scandals, Mr Sarkozy this week announced a series of symbolic steps to cut back on government spending, saying there was a “moral imperative” to set a better example. The measures include the cancellation of the annual Bastille Day garden party and doing away with 10,000 state cars.