The French satirical weekly newspaper “Le Canard enchaine” dicloses today that Francois Fillon, France's chief of government, spent his Christmas holidays in Egypt and was hosted at the expense of President Hosni Mubarak. This scandal erupts just a few weeks after the discovery that Michelle Alliot-Marie, France's Foreign Minister, spent holidays in Tunisia in December and twice used a private jet belonging to a businessman close to Ben Ali's clan. Fillon traveled to Aswan with his family from the 26 December to 2 January and used a jet belonging to Mubarak to travel from Aswan to Abu Simbel. “After Michele Alliot-Marie in Tunisia: Fillon's New Year's Eve in Upper Egypt inside Mubarak's plane” reads Le Canard Enchaine's headline, in bright red, with a smaller title that says “Like Michelle Alliot-Marie, Fillon and Sarkozy love plane trips.” Matignon, the official residence of the prime minister, released a statement “in the interest of transparency” giving additional details on the trip, just a day before the release in kiosks of the satirical weekly. The prime minister's services confirm that Fillon used an aircraft from the Egyptian government's fleet to travel from Aswan to Abu Simbel, and that he also made a boat trip on the Nile under the same conditions. The statement also informs us that Fillon and Mubarak met on 30 December, even though no information about the meeting had leaked until yesterday. In order to further defuse the bomb, Matignon précised that Fillon's trip in December was of a private nature, and as such his and his family's plane tickets from Paris to Cairo were charged on him “at the rate established by the Air Force.” But this only concerns the official French plane ETEC from Paris to Cairo; the statement does not clarify whether the Egyptian government was refunded for the use of its plane between Aswan and Abu Simbel. “After 'Air Ben Ali,' let me introduce you to 'Air Mubarak,'” French Communist Party spokesman Olivier Dartigolles said yesterday. Noel Mamere, MP and member of the Green Party, was heard saying in the corridors of the National Assembly: “I am overwhelmed by these incestuous relations with scoundrels, by this collusion with criminals. Now that the prime minister is involved, it becomes a state affair.” These scandalous revelations came as the entire French opposition is calling for the resignation of Alliot-Marie. On Thursday evening, Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to participate in a TV show in order to improve his popularity after a series of unfavorable polls. These two affairs will undoubtedly make this task more difficult.
