THE PARIS prosecutor has begun an inquiry into how a story appeared on a blog alleging marital problems between President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
The investigation follows an official complaint by a major media group against one of its own publications – the weekly Journal du Dimanche– for running the story on a blog hosted by its website.
“The company declares in its filing that the publication harmed the image of the company and its credibility,” a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office said.
Mr Sarkozy last month dismissed speculation about his marriage as “ridiculous rubbish” and two of his advisers said the stories might have been deliberately spread to damage the president’s standing.
The stories appeared on a number of French blogs and, despite not being substantiated, were then picked up by British newspapers. Mainstream French media largely ignored them.
“I can’t exclude a conspiracy where certain people would like to try and destabilise the president of the Republic and his wife, be it for personal reasons [or] for financial reasons, which would be even more immoral,” Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer, Thierry Herzog, said.
The president’s communications adviser, Pierre Charon, said last week that a judicial inquiry should track down the source of the rumours that led to the story. “We want to go all the way to make sure this never happens again. As they say, the fear has to change sides,” Mr Charon said.