There are certain truisms about life in the big city: housing is expensive, and any trip abroad can be ruined by trouble back home. So it was that Nicolas Sarkozy, who was campaigning in front of 2,000 French expatriates in Madrid on Tuesday evening, seemed more focused on events back in Paris. He was so distracted, in fact, that after finishing his speech, he marched into the pressroom to refute accusations that he benefited from a sweetheart housing deal.
The allegations, published in the satirical newspaper Le Canard enchaîné, involved two apartments that he bought in 1997 in the posh Neuilly-sur-Seine suburb of Paris where he was mayor for nearly 20 years. The newspaper alleged that Hizzoner Sarkozy saved more than 300,000 euros on the purchase and the conversion work necessary to create the 233 square-meter duplex that he sold in November for 1.94 million euros (at a 122 percent profit). The newspaper claims that Sarkozy bought the apartments for between 12 and 35 percent below the average per-square-meter price in the area.
Le Canard, as it is known, has had remarkable success in bringing down or sullying politicians over their housing excesses. Its reports on the luxurious government-funded housing for Hervé Gaymard -- President Jacques Chirac's up-and-coming young finance minister -- on the elegant Boulevard Saint-Michel helped to force Gaymard's resignation in 2005. Alain Juppé, Chirac's one-time heir apparent, was forced to leave his city-owned apartment in 1996 after Le Canard alleged that then-Prime Minister Juppé rented it for well below the market value. (In response to such scandals, Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal recently declared that none of her ministers would be offered state-funded housing, and Sarkozy recently said that only a few officials - like, say, the minister of the interior who is always on call -- actually need state-funded housing.)
Aware of the stakes, Sarkozy denied the "ridiculous" allegations on Tuesday night. He only half-jokingly spoke of the journalists who promoted such allegations as "detestable" for promoting a crude attempt to "sully" him less than two months before the presidential election. Saying that he'd found two neighbors who bought their places more cheaply, he explained that he even sought assurances in 1997 that he was buying at market price. "I wouldn't lie to you," he said with conviction. As for the construction work, he promised to put journalists in touch with the laborers who did some of it.
Socialists are laying low. A prominent party spokesman, the popular former minister of culture Jack Lang, said that his party wouldn't get involved in what could appear to be "some sort of secondary political maneuver." Royal also refused to address the issue in a television interview. But she may get her own chance to talk about Le Canard. The flimsy black and white newspaper promises a report on Royal's family finances for next week. She said on Tuesday that she's not worried: "There is no revelation to make."
Perhaps more troubling for her, the apartment of a close adviser was broken into on Monday night. The only thing missing: a portable computer.This followed a break-in at Royal's own apartment in August. That time, nothing was found to be missing. Conservatives might recommend that Socialists move to a better neighborhood.
Photograph of books about Royal and Sarkozy by Eric Pape
