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"Historic" and "unprecedented" — court proceedings in the Clearstream affair, which opened today in Paris, have been greeted with a full battery of superlatives in the French press. Given that the case focuses on a civil action filed on behalf of the current French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, against former president Jacques Chirac and former prime minister Dominique de Villepin, "unprecedented" may indeed be the right word. Over the next month, the court will rule on Villepin's level of involvement in a plot to destabilize the Sarkozy presidential campaign in 2004-2005. The former prime minister is suspected of attempting to weaken his rival of the period by adding Sarkozy's name to a faked listing of secret account holders in the Luxembourg clearing house Clearstream.
For Libération, the main question for the court will be: "Who faked the clearing house documents?" The editorial in the daily further argues that the hearings are vital "to the health of French democracy, which must uncover the truth (…) If that is not possible, the public will once again conclude that the courts and the political system are irredeemably tainted by "the stink of corruption."
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