“Watergate a la francaise,” one opposition leader calls the Clearstream affair. Named after a Luxembourg-based clearinghouse, it has all the ingredients of a political thriller: a master spy, anonymous denunciations, defence kickbacks, a smear campaign and fratricidal rivalry.
This imbroglio, which touches the heights of the French state, hints at the flavour of politics over the next 12 months, in the run-up to the presidential election.
The story originates in a judicial investigation, launched in 2001, into kickbacks, linked to the 1991 sale of six French frigates to Taiwan, that were allegedly channelled through Clearstream accounts.