It's a short story at this point and leads onto a number of questions. ARD (public TV, Channel One) picked it up yesterday and laid out the basic facts.
Back in 2007 in France....the election was heating for for Nicolas Sarkozy. His campaign was open for donations. Along came Libyan leader....Muammar al-Gaddafi. Some money was laid on the table for Sarkozy. Nothing was really clear about the amount.....some people suggest 50 million Euro. The funding ceiling at that point in time? 21 million Euro. Along the way, there are some rules that would generally prevent money from outside of France to come into an election like this.
The cops? They brought Sarkozy in for a brief Q and A on Monday and want more details. Other than this.....nothing much else.
The 2007 election? Sarkozy won....barely....53-percent to 47-percent.
If the money did come.....it probably did help to some degree. Was it fifty million Euro? Unknown.
What did Gaddafi want in return? No one says much. If Gaddafi figured that Sarkozy was at some weak point and that some deal could be made with the campaign contribution....then fifty million would have been a very cheap way to get some inside position for Libya on business (oil or natural gas, I would assume).
For the record Sarkozy lasted five years, and then was soundly beaten in 2012 (the year after Gaddafi was taken down from power and executed). Francois Hollande beat Sarkozy by roughly four points....so it was fairly close.
Why any of this comes up eleven years after the event? That's the part that doesn't really explain much. One could imagine several insiders knowing about the suggested 50 million Euro donation, and one of them finally told the story to the news media in the last six months.
Maybe the folks in Libya have dug through financial records and found the missing 50-million Euro note about Sarkozy (wanting it back).
The investigation? It may go nowhere. Or it might entangle Sarkozy or one of his political handlers.
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