国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

   

WORLD / Europe

French PM to battle no confidence motion
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-05-16 16:14

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was to face a grilling in parliament as lawmakers debate a no confidence motion tabled by the opposition Socialists over the Clearstream dirty tricks scandal.


French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was to face a grilling in parliament as lawmakers debate a no confidence motion tabled by the opposition Socialists over the Clearstream dirty tricks scandal. [AFP]

Although the motion has no chance of succeeding - the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) has a large overall majority - the government will have to fight off tough questioning in the National Assembly.

For more than two weeks the so-called Clearstream affair has dominated the national press, with a steady stream of revelations about money-laundering, spies, defence contracts and, at the heart, an alleged smear campaign against Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who is also the ruling party boss.

The government's popularity and international reputation have plunged amid reports that President Jacques Chirac and his ally Villepin ordered a spymaster to probe claims that Sarkozy had hidden offshore bank accounts.

The Socialists, whose hopes for next year's presidential election have soared as the centre-right sinks into crisis, are charging that Villepin's divided government is no longer fit to rule.

After months of social upheaval from the suburban riots of November to the recent job law protests, the Clearstream affair confirms that it is time to "turn the page on this regime of crises", the censure motion says.

"To vote the motion is to end the crisis," Socialist leader Francois Hollande told Le Monde in an interview, calling on lawmakers from both the left and the right to rally against "a government that has lost all credit".

With 354 out of 577 seats in the National Assembly, the UMP is certain to defeat the motion, however, and some commentators have said it could even provide a much-needed chance for the party to pull together.

The business daily Les Echos warned in an editorial that voters, few of whom truly grasp the details of the tortuous affair risked simply writing off the entire centre-right ahead of next year's elections.

"What the French do understand is that the right is tearing itself apart ... that the country is not being governed properly and that their own problems are being relegated to a back seat," it wrote.

A highly complex tale of espionage, defence deals and malicious libel, the Clearstream affair became public in mid-2004 when a judge investigating illegal commissions paid in the sale of warships to Taiwan received lists of alleged account-holders at the Clearstream bank of Luxembourg.

The list turned out to be bogus, and Sarkozy, whose name appeared alongside those of several other politicians and business leaders believes he was the victim of a smear campaign ahead of the 2007 presidential election.

 
 

樟树市| 平邑县| 崇礼县| 东乡族自治县| 辽阳市| 商南县| 竹山县| 泊头市| 海丰县| 新绛县| 安多县| 全州县| 垣曲县| 南阳市| 若羌县| 望奎县| 谢通门县| 青岛市| 焉耆| 广平县| 宁陵县| 余庆县| 北票市| 柘荣县| 电白县| 潼关县| 大洼县| 铜山县| 合山市| 板桥市| 三亚市| 邛崃市| 平利县| 化德县| 临江市| 鸡东县| 永泰县| 福安市| 南靖县| 阳谷县| 南康市|