Happy Birthday Mr President

Nicolas Sarkozy turned 55 today. His birthday celebrations will doubtless have been ruined by the news that his rival, Dominique de Villepin, has been acquitted in the Clearstream libel case. One of the first things Sarkozy did on coming to power in 2007 was to eliminate two of his most powerful opponents: the centrist Socialist politician, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was sent off to lead the IMF and the right-winger, de Villepin, who was sent before the courts. The accusation against de Villepin was highly complicated but the essence of it was that he had knowingly circulated false documents which implied that Sarkozy had an illegal, undeclared bank account in Luxembourg. The courts ruled that there was no way of proving that de Villepin had circulated this information and no way of proving that he had deliberately concealed its fraudulent nature. I am delighted by this outcome. Not because I believe passionately in de Villepin's innocence - he like Sarkozy is perfectly capable of playing dirty - but because a president who himself appoints the prosecuting magistrate and who benefits from judicial immunity has no place bringing cases before the courts. This whole affair was a colossal waste of money and more importantly a colossal abuse of the judicial system.