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Paris: French politics took on a whiff of the Watergate scandal on Thursday after Segolene Royal, former socialist presidential candidate, hinted that President Nicolas Sarkozy was behind a break-in at her home.
Royal, who wants to challenge Sarkozy for a second time in 2012, triggered a political furore when she said a burglary at her flat in a suburb of Paris was a "strange coincidence" coming the day after she had called for an end to the "takeover by the Sarkozy clan". Royal added that she would not "yield to intimidation". Her accusation met a furious response from Sarkozy's allies.
Francois Fillon, prime minister, said the former candidate was "losing self-control". "Throwing this type of insinuation . . . obviously without any sort of proof, is shameful I find."
Royal provided no evidence to back up her claim, but it is bound to feed conspiracy theories given France's history of political manipulation of the intelligence services.
Political rival
In the early 1980s, President Francois Mitterrand ordered an anti-terrorist unit based in the Elysee palace to tap the telephone conversations of hundreds of people, including journalists and celebrities.
Dominique de Villepin, former prime minister, is under investigation for allegedly using the intelligence services to try to blacken the name of Sarkozy in 2006, then his closest political rival. De Villepin denies any wrongdoing.
More recently, when a group of army officers wrote a newspaper article anonymously criticising planned defence reforms, Sarkozy ordered intelligence services to track down the culprits.
Royal told the police that nothing was stolen during the break-in on June 27 even though jewellery had been left in full view. She suffered a similar break-in in August 2006. Other members of her then campaign team were also burgled.
Suspicions that she was being targeted were heightened when it emerged that her then environmental adviser was being investigated by the intelligence service, although it said it was in relation to his former role as president of Greenpeace France.
Royal has stepped up her opposition towards Sarkozy into an increasingly ad hominem campaign. She was practically the only political figure to attack the president's handling of the freeing of Ingrid Betancourt, the former, Franco-Colombian hostage, saying he had "nothing to do" with her release.
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