Nicolas Sarkozy’s party slings mud at itself

Nicolas Sarkozy’s political party, the UMP, is in the midst of an internal squabble which is seeping out into the open.

The main centre-right opposition UMP is said to be facing collapse as its senior members hurl accusations at each other of frittering away millions of euros of taxpayer’s money in luxury spending.

The party was baffled at how it acquired a €74.5 million debt, despite state subsidies, and ordered an audit of its accounts.

After the audit’s publication on Wednesday, most of the UMP’s senior figures have leaked stories against each other.

The first to tumble out appeared in the satirical Le Canard Enchaîné where the former justice minister allegedly had claimed for her €10,000 telephone bill, €9,000 for train tickets and €4,000 on air fares, despite the European Parliament meeting many such bills.

She said she was the victim of a smear campaign by “thugs” and invited former prime minister François Fillon to “come clean on his expenses”.

Another leak claimed that the party spent more than €20,000 in 2006 for Mr Fillon’s use of a private helicopter and €14,200 for a private jet trip between Paris, Biarritz and Madrid.

He responded that all the trips were "justified" and "transparent".

Last month, the former leader of the UMP stepped down over a party financing scandal. He was accused of spending €25,000 on his wife’s plane fares. One claim appearing on Médiapart, the investigative website, alleges that she receives €4,750 per month as his "personal assistant", even though she is a practicing child psychologist.

A preliminary investigation has been launched into Mr Sarkozy for abuse of trust as judges seek to determine whether he should have personally paid back around €500,000 he overspent on his 2012 campaign, rather than the UMP paying for it.

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