“Settling old scores in advance of the trial,” is the headline in today’s Le Parisien. Tensions are rising in advance of the Clearstream trial which is coming up in two weeks time pitting Nicolas Sarkozy against the former PM in his own party Dominique de Villepin.

The case concerns a bogus list of bank accounts at the Clearstream financial clearing-house in Luxembourg held by several prominent business men and politicians including Nicolas Sarkozy. The accounts were supposedly linked to kickbacks on the sale of arms to Taiwan in 1991.

Dominique de Villepin was Foreign Affairs Minister and Interior Minister at the time and it is alleged that he knew that this was a false list but nonetheless advised that an investigation be opened up into the affair.. Sarkozy maintains the scheme aimed to embroil him in a controversy that would prevent him from running for the Presidency. In 2004 when the scandal emerged, Chirac was President and Villepin was his preferred choice to run for the Elysée upon his retirement. Sarkozy was very much the political enemy of Chirac and Villepin.

Today’s Parisien reports declarations made by Nicolas Sarkozy about the case. He is currently on a state visit to Brazil.
“It is high time that all of this scheming under the 5th Republic is done away with once and for all. This plotting and scheming has gone on for too long …Let the judges decide,” Sarkozy said.

Villepin’s lawyer has hit back saying he is shocked at such declarations in advance of the trial. He denounced “carefully orchestrated interventions and unacceptable attempts to influence the courts” but was careful not to specifically refer to the President in his criticisms.

Le Monde reports that France’s Prime Minister, François Fillon, is putting himself forward as a possible alternative to José Manuel Barroso should the latter fail in his bid to be re-nominated as President of the European Commission.

This would only become a possibility if Barroso doesn’t manage to get the support of a majority of MEPs which he probably will. Another scenario which could see Fillon’s candidacy considered is if Ireland votes “NO” to the Lisbon Treaty referendum for a second time. The subsequent political could see Barroso stepping aside.

A senior French diplomat told Le Monde, Barroso has a 70% chance of being re-elected. If he isn’t, than anything is possible.

Fillon has carefully nurtured alliances with the European Peoples Party, a conservative alliance within the European Parliament. He also speaks perfect English seeing as his wife is Welsh. But he did vote “No” to the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and that could be used against him.

It appears that the Elysee isn’t terribly happy about the idea – Fillon would have to be replaced as PM which does not fit in with Sarkozy’s plan for the remainder of his five year term.

This, coupled with the Clearstream affair shows it’s a case of each man for himself in French politics, even within the same party.

Libération today publishes an appeal for increased transparency with regards to the Swine Flu. Democracy itself is at risk of being undermined, it claims. The swine flu is the perfect excuse to implement draconian measures that limit freedoms, the appeal notes. You just need to open few books such as Camus’s “The Plague” to see that this is not a new theme or a new idea. Prominent doctors, politicians and even some Nobel laureates have supported the appeal.

Today’s Aujourd’hui en France features a photo of… the biggest chip (fry) in the world! Measuring a whopping 24.5 cm, the chip was fashioned in a restaurant in Villneuve d’Ascq in the North of France. This is perhaps the most insignificant world record of all time (even if this chip has trounced the previous record-holder measuring just 19cm.)