You can see In the French Papers live on France 24 from Monday to Friday at 7.10am Paris time.

Unedited television script

The Clearstream trial opened yesterday and it didn’t disappoint those intrigued by this public battle of wills between Nicolas Sarkozy and Dominique de Villepin. The latter made a dramatic speech to the media on front of the courthouse with his family lined up behind him. “I am here by the will of one man, I am here through the fierce determination of one man, Nicolas Sarkozy who is also the French President.”

Le Parisien’s runs a front page photo of the Villepin clan’s public stand against Sarkozy. Inside, a cartoon features the former French Prime Minister in the guillotine and still insisting on speaking out against Sarkozy, “I want to take advantage of this platform to…”

Le Parisien says that if Villepin is handed down even a symbolic sentence, it will put an end to his Presidential ambitions for 2012.

What’s fascinating about this feud is that it’s within the same political family – the UMP Party. Jacques Chirac had favoured Villepin for the Presidency over Sarkozy with whom he had a famous falling out. The whole Clearstream case turns on this – Sarkozy thinks the Clearstream smear was a bid by Chirac and Villepin to remove him from the UMP Party contest for the Presidential ticket (although he has not publicly blamed Chirac for the sherade).

The centre right in France has a long history of division. In 1981, Jacques Chirac stood against the then President Valérie Giscard d’Estaing. Giscard always blamed Chirac for having lost the Presidency in 1981 to the left – Mitterand won that election. There is a similar rivalry between Villepin and Sarkozy but it is truly unprecedented, that such a level of vitriol would play itself out in a court of law.

The headline in France Soir is “Villepin the arrogant” – a reference to his speech before the courthouse yesterday which the paper clearly views in a dim light. Inside, there is an interview with Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer. When asked about the criticism of Sarkozy for using the trial for political ends, he says that Villepin is doing exactly the same thing. Villepin is using the trial as a platform for his own ambitions for the Presidency in 2012. The fact that lawyers are speaking so openly to the press during the trial is an indication of the priorities on both sides. This is more about publicity and political undercutting than anything else.

The Postal Service is on strike today in France over a bid to open up the service to competition as required by EU directives. Unions say this is a step on the road to privatisation. The Alsatian paper Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace says that the Clearstream Affair has taken the attention away from the strike and the legitimate anger of the workers.
“Clearsteam is simply a political fight between two men…whereas the postal service dispute affects all French people,” the paper notes.

Le Figaro runs several articles on the rumour mill surrounding Valérie Giscard d’Estaing’s new novel. The former French President has written about a love affair between a …French President and a British princess clearly based on Lady Diana. He recounts trysts in French châteaux and Royal palaces in England, much to the amusement and incredulity of the press on both sides of the Channel. Showbiz journalist Stéphane Bern says if the novel is pure fantasy, what on earth came over Giscard d’Estaing to write this?! Some are saying the former President was fantasising about an impossible love through literature. In any case, the inevitable farce that the book release has triggered will ensure a bestseller for Giscard, he concludes.

Most couples fight while on holidays it appears – this according to a poll conducted by expedia.fr. Libération recounts the results. 53% of couples fight even before arriving at their destination. The car is the theatre for most of these disputes, followed by bus, plan and train. 34% fight because the person who is driving doesn’t know where he’s going. Perhaps it’s those shortcuts that add two hours onto the journey, the paper muses. 27¨% of people fight because they can’t agree where to eat,31% over the quality of the accommodation and perhaps most disturbingly…7% of couples do not survive a trip away together!