Lagarde, 57, appears in front of special tribunal of judges in Paris
Widely expected to be charged with fraud and embezzlement
Relates to £270m payout to Bernard Tapie when she was finance minister
Denies any wrongdoing and lawyer said she expects case to be dismissed
The head of the International Monetary Fund appeared in court today where she is expected to be formally charged in connection with a £270million fraud and embezzlement case.
Christine Lagarde’s humiliation [...]
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy may run for office again in 2017, a senior member of his centre-right UMP party hinted on Wednesday.
When asked if Sarkozy would present himself as candidate in 2017, former foreign minister Alain Juppé told France’s Parliamentary Channel LCP, “I get the feeling that he will – even if it’s not for me to answer that question in his place.
“Nicolas Sarkozy is here in France, he [...]
zerohedge.com / By Tyler Durden / January 22, 2013, 15:39
That even former French president Nicolas Sarakozy plans to start a £1 billion private equity fund in London is not news: courtesy of ZIRP and the ongoing global reliquifiication of markets by every central bank as currency warfare goes ballistic, one would have to be seriously unlucky to chase the central planner inflated beta rally and not succeed (one would also have to be very [...]
The United States used U.S.-Israeli spy software to hack into the French presidential office earlier this year, the French cyberwarfare agency has concluded, according to the newsmagazine l’Express.
The magazine reported late Tuesday that the computers of several close advisers to then-president Nicolas Sarkozy – including Chief of Staff Xavier Musca – were compromised in May by a computer virus that bears the hallmarks of Flame, which was allegedly created by a U.S.-Israeli team to [...]
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
When the German Constitutional Court nodded with a stern smile on the ESM bailout fund and the Fiscal Union treaty, the world, or at least the politicians at the top, breathed a sigh of relief. Those two treaties, designed to keep the Eurozone duct-taped together, transfer budgetary sovereignty from elected national parliaments to unelected bureaucrats in the bowels of the European government. The Court attached a laundry list of [...]
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been offered the chance to earn £200,000 for just a single hour of work with Morgan Stanley.
If Sarkozy takes the bank’s offer, revealed in French investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine, he will receive the bumper sum for giving a 45-minute speech and posing for pictures for a further 15 minutes.
The scale of the payment reveals the lucrative avenues open to former world leaders after [...]
French police were yesterday breaking up gipsy camps and deporting illegal immigrants found in them.
Dozens of officers in riot gear descended on a settlement near Lille shortly after dawn to oversee the evacuation of some 200 Roma living in mobile homes.
One hundred people were evicted from a site in Lyon, with similar round-ups happening in other major cities including Marseille. Caravans and huts were destroyed in the Belleville area of [...]
French police have raided the home and offices of the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy as part of an investigation into illegal campaign financing and alleged brown envelopes of cash from France’s wealthiest woman, the L’Oreal hairspray heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
Police searched the mansion rented by Carla Bruni in a chic gated community in the west of Paris, where she and Sarkozy live with Bruni’s 11-year-old son and the couple’s new baby daughter. [...]
French President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party is set to win the largest number of seats in parliament, exit polls for the first round of the country’s legislative elections yesterday showed.
Hollande will have to wait until the June 17 second round to know if he has an absolute majority or will need allies in parliament, some of whom say his plans to increase spending and taxes are too timid.
In yesterday’s round, the [...]
Austerity: 2011′s Darling Becomes 2012′s Pariah
Posted: 05/29/2012 4:58 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariann…b_1552657.html
There’s a new scarlet letter in town. Actually, it’s the same letter — “A” — but it stands for a different word that’s increasingly regarded as shameful: Austerity. The darling idea of 2010 and 2011 has become the pariah concept of 2012. One of the defining features of conventional wisdom is the way it perpetuates itself. Once a certain narrative or idea [...]
Questioned about Greek crisis head of IMF said country can help itself collectively ‘by paying all their tax’
Suggests that IMF’s money would be better spent on African children than on people in Athens
Lagarde takes home £298,675-a-year untaxed
Receives further tax-free allowance package of £52,000
The head of the International Monetary Fund who controversially proposed that struggling Greeks should pay taxes contributes nothing herself to the public purse.
Christine Lagarde openly criticised citizens of [...]
Michael Mainville
AFP
French leader Francois Hollande’s new Socialist government got down to work on Thursday with the first order of business a symbolic 30 percent pay cut for the president and ministers.
Following the cabinet’s inaugural meeting, spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said the salary reduction was to “set an example” as the government looks to tackle France’s troubled public finances.
The move was also aimed at drawing a distinction betweenHollande and former president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose gross [...]
Carla Bruni was today facing embarrassing revelations about her past love affair with France’s new foreign minister.
The 44-year-old former supermodel had a ‘brief but very passionate’ relationship with Laurent Fabius, 65, before she married the then President Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2008.
Around the this time, political biographer Valerie Benaim wrote a book called ‘Carla and Nicolas: the real story’ in which she discussed Carla’s numerous ‘secret’ lovers including English rock stars [...]
Paris/Brussels: Brussels has raised a red flag on France’s budget deficit next year, in a warning over a €24bn fiscal shortfall that threatens to develop into a confrontation with Paris over austerity.
François Hollande, the French Socialist president-elect who has warned against over-reliance on austerity, said he had “anticipated” the deterioration in public finances and blamed “hidden taxes” left behind by the outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy.
But the significant margin by which [...]
Note also concerns that GB pound may also come under pressure if it’s realised GB could be hit hard by debt contagion:
Sterling has hit a near three-and-a-half year high against the euro in the wake of new political uncertainties in the eurozone, paving the way for cheaper holidays for UK tourists.
The pound has risen against the single currency to levels not seen since autumn 2008 after elections in France and [...]
by Michael
The results of the elections in France and Greece have made it abundantly clear that there is a tremendous backlash against the austerity approach that Germany has been pushing. All over Europe, prominent politicians and incumbent political parties are being voted out. In fact, Nicolas Sarkozy has become the 11th leader of a European nation to be defeated in an election since 2008. We have seen governments fall in [...]
President Nicolas Sarkozy ousted by socialist candidate Francois Hollande
Meanwhile in Greece, voters reject policies of tough financial discipline
Analysts warns results could tip single currency into collapse within months
Europe was plunged into fresh economic chaos last night as France rejected austerity and elected a tax-and-spend socialist president.
Nicolas Sarkozy suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Francois Hollande, who ran on a platform of tearing up last December’s controversial deal to [...]
Francois Hollande defeated French President Nicolas Sarkozy as voters handed control of the second-biggest European economy to the Socialists for the first time in 17 years.
Socialist Hollande’s simple solutions include:
=Taxes *Impose a tax on financial transactions. *Impose a 75 percent income tax on earnings above 1 million euros ($1.32 million) and raise the rate to 45 percent for the income bracket between 150,000 euros and 1 million euros per year. [...]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Francois Hollande wrapped up their campaigns urging their supporters to turn out as the challenger’s lead narrowed.
The final daily tracking survey before the vote tomorrow showed Sarkozy narrowed Hollande’s lead to 52 percent to 48 percent, according to the pollster Ifop. No margin of error was provided. Five polls published the past two days indicated Sarkozy gaining after the May 2 televised debate.
“Even with the gap [...]
Opinion polls place Socialist Francois Hollande far ahead of president
Incumbent failed to make a dent in rival’s campaign during TV debate
Hollande ridicules Sarkozy: ‘With you it’s very simple – it’s never your fault’
President claims opinion polls ‘are lying’
Showing the signs of strain in the closely run French election, president Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday admitted that he might be defeated when voters go to the polls on Sunday.
The political leader, who has [...]
Reuters) – President Nicolas Sarkozy’s chances of holding on to power were fading two days before France’s election runoff, with far-right and centrist leaders refusing to endorse him and his usually bland Socialist rival performing confidently in a TV debate.
Opinion polls suggested Sarkozy could squeeze Socialist challenger Francois Hollande’s lead down to around five percentage points from as much as 10 in the last few days.
However, centrist Francois Bayrou effectively [...]
From FT:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy aggressively attacked François Hollande in a keenly anticipated television debate on Wednesday night but apparently failed to do serious damage to his Socialist challenger, who fought back blow by blow.
The two candidates, meeting in the only face-to-face confrontation of the campaign ahead of Sunday’s presidential election, frequently exchanged bad-tempered barbs as they wrangled over the state of France’s economy, the eurozone crisis and the proper conduct of the [...]
PARIS (AP) – President Nicolas Sarkozy is the underdog, and he knows it. Not a single poll has predicted he will win re-election on Sunday, and leading figures in his government are already lining up new jobs.
In televised interviews, Sarkozy’s on the defensive and paints himself as a victim. At campaign rallies, he’s boxer-like, punching the air, torso soaked with sweat within minutes of taking the podium. He relishes the [...]
PARIS (Reuters) – Allegations of scandal and dirty tricks, and a presidential lawsuit, clouded France’s election race as it entered the final week on Monday with both sides preparing for rival May Day rallies and a crucial television debate.
The developments, along with a new opinion poll showing Socialist challenger Francois Hollande’s lead over Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy has narrowed slightly, raised the temperature on the eve of the rallies and [...]
A French magazine is claiming that President Nicolas Sarkozy and Libya’s ex-strongman Moamer Kadhafi reached a “secret deal” to trade nuclear cooperation for the release of foreign medics.
Based on “confidential documents”, the report to appear Wednesday in weekly Les Inrockuptibles emerged ahead of Sunday’s run-off vote between Sarkozy and Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande.
It came after Sarkozy, who has accused “biased” left-wing media of targeting him, said he would sue a [...]
By Tony Todd reporting from Nimes (text)
Across France teams of Socialist activists are knocking on doors and talking to voters, in a door-to-door campaign inspired by US President Barack Obama’s successful 2008 campaign.
FRANCE 24 joined a small team of Socialist Party (PS) canvassers working the suburbs of Nimes in southern France as the country gears up for the second round of the presidential election on May 6.
Locally, there is much at stake [...]
French investigative website Mediapart reported Saturday that deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi agreed to fund President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign with a 50 million euro cheque.
By News Wires (text)
AFP - Moamer Kadhafi’s regime agreed to fund French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign to the tune of 50 million euros, a news website reported Saturday, publishing what it said was documentary evidence.
The 2006 document in Arabic, which website Mediapart said was signed [...]
byMeteor Blades
How austerity policies and stimulus policies affect the GDP
The financial experts had expected the U.K. to eke out a teensy bit of economic growth in 2012. But the Office for National Statistics reported Wednesday that the British economy contracted for the second consecutive quarter, registering a 0.2 percent decline in annualized Gross Domestic Product for the first quarter of the year on top of the 0.3 percent GDP decline [...]
From GoldCore:
Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,638.75, EUR 1,244.68, and GBP 1,014.83 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,632.00, EUR 1,240.97 and GBP 1,014.42 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $30.85/oz, €23.43/oz and £19.10/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,550.00/oz, palladium at $671.25/oz and rhodium at $1,350/oz.
Gold fell $3.80 or 0.23% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,638.20/oz. Gold has been trading mostly sideways in Asia and within [...]
By Sarah LEDUC (text)
Having secured nearly one in five votes cast in the first round of France’s presidential election on Sunday, far right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen has the potential to swing what is likely to be a close second round on May 6.
But for the moment, Marine Le Pen is not asking her supporters to choose between incumbent centre-right President Nicolas Sarkozy or Socialist challenger François Hollande. Instead, she [...]
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — French voters headed to the polls Sunday to cast ballots in the first round of the country’s presidential elections. The French Interior Ministry said 28.3% of France’s more than 44 million eligible voters had cast ballots by midday, according to cable news channel France 24. Polls remain open until 6 p.m. local time, or noon Eastern) in most areas and until 8 p.m. local time in large [...]
by testosteronepit
“There is no more risk that the euro will implode,” declared French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday, two days before the first round of the presidential election. Europe is “recovering,” he said desperately. Thanks to his leadership. To make sure that Europe doesn’t fall back into the hole, the French would need to reelect him. A few weeks ago, he’d proclaimed “The crisis is finished.” But Spain may require an emergency bailout [...]
French president Nicolas Sarkozy is closing the gap with the Socialists’ presidential candidate Francois Hollande for the first round ballot on April 22 but still has a good deal of ground to make up.
Here are the main election pledges of the Sarkozy and Hollande ahead of the Sunday elections from Nomura:
Nomura
businessinsider
Confronted with plunging polls and deserting allies, President Nicolas Sarkozy faces the prospect of a rout in the two-round French presidential election starting this weekend, with senior members of his government already said to be certain of defeat.
Supporters of the front-running Socialist candidate, François Hollande, could scarcely contain their euphoria when they gathered in Lille for their last big rally on Tuesday night before French electors go to the polls [...]
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy defended his economic record on Friday as a slew of opinion polls suggested his prospects of re-election were crumbling just over a week from round one of a vote where Socialist Francois Hollande is the clear frontrunner.
Four polls published in less than 24 hours showed Hollande extending his lead, with the conservative incumbent’s modest gains of the past month starting to evaporate ahead [...]
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For the first time, Nicolas Sarkozy admits he may be facing defeat as he trails behind favourite in French election race
Opinion polls place Socialist Francois Hollande far ahead of president
Incumbent failed to make a dent in rival’s campaign during TV debate
Hollande ridicules Sarkozy: ‘With you it’s very simple – it’s never your fault’
President claims opinion polls ‘are lying’
Showing the signs of strain in the closely run French election, president Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday admitted that he might be defeated when voters go to the polls on Sunday.
The political leader, who has [...]