Deep in Debt, Sarkozy’s Party Might Have to Sit Out Next Election
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — France’s main conservative opposition party has disclosed that it is more than $100 million in debt, leaving it financially crippled and further impairing its ability to take on President François Hollande’s governing Socialists and head off the growing strength of the far-right National Front. The party — known as U.M.P., for Union for a Popular Movement — has been in an intensifying state of crisis for months over accusations of bookkeeping irregularities to cover up cost overruns from former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s failed re-election campaign in 2012. In an audit made public on Tuesday night, the party acknowledged that its financial problems were worse than previously known and that it would have to cut spending and negotiate new loans to survive. The release of the audit followed Mr. Sarkozy’s detention last week by prosecutors investigating a separate corruption and influence-peddling case. Mr. Sarkozy had been contemplating another run for the presidency, though at this point it remains unclear whether he could be a viable candidate. The party has yet to rally around anyone to challenge Mr. Hollande, whose public support is at record lows. His term expires in 2017. The news of the audit prompted a scathing front-page editorial in Le Figaro, a newspaper that is usually one of the U.M.P.'s most ardent supporters. Noting that the party had a predictable income from the government that should have allowed for common-sense budgeting, the editorial called the news of its near bankruptcy “shattering.” “How could anyone be surprised that voters would turn elsewhere?” the editorial, written by Paul-Henri du Limbert, concluded. “You can certainly deplore such a turn of events. But it would be more intelligent not to give the voters reasons for such a divorce.” In May, party officials were forced to admit to a series of irregularities, including filing false invoices intended to cover up overspending on Mr. Sarkozy’s 2012 campaign, triggering the resignation of the party chairman, Jean-François Copé. This month Mr. Sarkozy was taken into custody and questioned over accusations of corruption and influence peddling related to an investigation into the finances of his 2007 campaign, the first time a former president of France had ever been detained in such a manner. He has since denied any wrongdoing and called the accusations against him grotesque and fabricated. But his party’s financial predicament has made it easy for his opponents to question whether its candidates could be trusted with France’s finances. And several newspapers have been reporting embarrassing details of the party’s overspending. The investigative weekly Le Canard enchaîné reported this week that Mr. Copé's four assistants were each paid about 10,000 euros, or about $13,600, a month. One former minister in the party, Rachida Dati, had phone bills of €10,000 a year and rang up €13,000 —about $17,700 — for transportation last year. In a statement, the party said: “This audit is intended to give total transparency into the U.M.P.'s accounts and provide an analysis that should guarantee the survival of the movement.” But its officials also announced a 20 percent cut in party running costs and said its political campaign funds for the next three years would be limited to €19 million — about half its spending in the run-up to the 2012 elections. The audit put the party’s total debt at €79.1 million, almost $108 million, at the end of 2013, much of it related to the purchase and renovation of a new party headquarters in Paris three years ago and on overspending on the campaign. Mr. Sarkozy has said he will decide whether to run again by early September. His party is set to choose a new leader in November. |