Issue 76, 1st Feb 2007

French Presidential Candidate Accuses Opponent Of Secret Service Antics
By Lolo Laroche in Paris

French Socialist presidential candidate, Segolene Royale today accused her main opponent, Nicolas Sarkozy of using his position as interior minister to manipulate the country's secret services to political ends.

The Canard Enchainé, a french Scoop-Paper claimed earlier this week, that one of Segolene Royale's brothers, Antoine, has recently been questioned by the secret services, along with Segolene Royale's environment adviser, ex-Greenpeace spokesman Bruno Rebelle.

Segolene Royale comes from a large family firmly achored in the french political machine, and a few months ago a mini storm erupted when one brother Antoine Royale revealed that another brother Gérard Royale - a secret service agent - personally placed a bomb on the Greenpeace boat, the Rainbow Warrior, in 1977 - sinking the boat and killing two members of the environmental group. Antoine's statement revealed in effect that not only that his (and Segolene's) brother was a member of the secret services, (something which usually remains, erm, secret) but that he is responsible for state sponsored murder in New Zealand waters, an act that was heavily criticised by....... you guessed it Bruno Rebelle.

Whipping up a perfect political storm, Segolene Royale, commenting on the current investigations of her brother Gerard (who planted the bomb), Antoine (who leaked the identity of bomber) and her adviser Bruno Rebelle (who as a spokesman for Green-peace criticised it), stated that the only logical reason she can imagine that the Secret Services would want to speak to the three men would be to disrupt her presidential bid.
As other reasons do come to mind, some have suggested that this maybe shows a certain lack of understanding of how the French Secret service works, not to mention a lack of capacity for logical reasoning, which could be problematic for a future president.

What do you think?? Tell us your views here!




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