Sarkozy's bid for re-election next year is threatened by allegations of sleaze as claims that he spied on journalists and took illegal donations from France's richest woman have been followed by reports that he accepted cash from African despots.He's a French pol. Of course he took money from an African despot. The sun does rise in the east, you know.
The opposition Socialists believe Sarkozy is vulnerable after an investigation was launched into claims that French politics has been illegally influenced by African dictators hoping to buy favors from Paris.
Robert Bourgi, a lawyer known as "M Africa", says Jacques Chirac and Dominique de Villepin received wads of cash from French-speaking west African countries. When Bourgi turned up with a bag, he said, Chirac would sometimes ask: "Got something heavy for me?"
One of the suitcases Bourgi delivered was so heavy that it put his back out. Bourgi claims the payments ceased when he went to work for Sarkozy.
However, two former Chirac advisers insist that Bourgi continued delivering African money that helped fund Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007. Michel de Bonnecorse says Bourgi "held out a begging bowl" to African dictators on Sarkozy's behalf.
In an interview with the author of a book about corruption he said that Bourgi obtained funds in 2006 from Omar Bongo, the late president of Gabon, and Denis Sassou Nguesso, the president of Congo.