The 55-year-old conservative leader hoped a cabinet reshuffle last week would help turn the page on a difficult year marred by allegations of illegal funding of his conservative UMP party and a series of national protests over his pension reform.
Sarkozy is also trying to use an ambitious agenda under France’s year-long presidency of the G20 group of nations, which began this month, as a platform for rebuilding his popularity in the run-up to a presidential election in early 2012.
A survey by pollsters Ifo published in the Journal du Dimanche offered Sarkozy some respite. It showed his approval rating inching up by 3 percentage points to 32 percent in early November, after hitting rock-bottom in October at the height of union-led protests against legislation to raise the pension age.
The poll was conducted either side of a Nov. 14 Cabinet reshuffle, which retained government heavyweights like Economy Minister Christine Lagarde but ditched centrists and left-wing converts to shore up Sarkozy’s right-wing support base.
However, Sunday’s newspapers all led on the investigation into the “Karachi affair,” in which 11 French naval engineers and technicians died in a 2002 bomb attack in the Pakistani port, originally thought to be the work of militants.
Relatives of the victims launched a case this week against former President Jacques Chirac and his then chief-of-staff Dominique de Villepin, alleging the suicide attack was a reprisal for Chirac’s decision to halt commissions on Agosta submarine sales to Pakistan when he won power in 1995.
A judge is also separately investigating whether illegal back-payments from the contract were used to finance the 1995 presidential bid of Sarkozy’s political mentor Edouard Balladur, prime minister in 1994 when the submarine contracts were signed.
“We owe the truth to the families,” Socialist legislator Jerome Cahuzac told Europe 1 radio on Sunday, calling for a parliamentary investigation into the affair and accusing the government of withholding information on Balladur’s funding.
Villepin, Sarkozy’s bitter political rival, said on Friday he had “very strong suspicions of illegal back-payments” to French politicians and asked to testify before the judge.
Sarkozy, who was budget minister in Balladur’s government when the deals were signed, on Saturday denounced what he called a “controversy which has no basis” and pledged all the necessary documentation would be placed at the disposal of investigators.
“The justice system is involved. Let it do its work and let’s try not to politicize this, which would be inappropriate for the grief of the families,” he said at a NATO summit in Lisbon.
However, the daughter of one of the engineers killed in the attack told Le Parisien newspaper on Sunday that Sarkozy’s statement “sounds like a confession.”
“He is acknowledging there are documents which are interesting for the investigation which have not yet been handed over,” Magali Drouet told the newspaper.
Alain Juppe, who was named defense minister in last week’s reshuffle and served as prime minister in 1995-97 under Chirac, said Sarkozy’s comments were a commitment that judges could have access to any documents they need.
“That does not mean that there is anything being hidden. That means he is ready to respond to future demands.”
