The French surveyed by BVA are also without real illusion

Dominique de Villepin rejected yesterday to resign, on the grounds that Clearstream affair was a "wet firecracker", since General Rondot finally ensured he never received from him the order to investigate Nicolas Sarkozy. The President of the UMP, which had contributed to the publicity of the scandal, has promised to not "trigger a political crisis on the basis of articles of press statements of each and the other". The two men have used exactly the same terms to wish that the "truth" be made on this case, the Prime Minister saying ready after Nicolas Sarkozy to be heard by justice.

But these soothing words are not wrong: with every twist and turn recent the Clearstream case, creeping rivalry between Dominique de Villepin and Nicolas Sarkozy turned into total war, with the UMP group as battlefield. The two men avoided direct attacks, but mutual suspicion is rampant, each posing as a "victim of a manipulation" which imply, is suggested by the other.

For two years, Nicolas Sarkozy suspected Dominique de Villepin to have mounted the case, or less than is to be used to discredit him. The relatives of the Prime Minister are convinced that it is the President of the UMP that passed to the "world" of the excerpts of the hearing of General Rondot involving the.

"For the monstrous lies".

After once again to be assured of the support of Jacques Chirac Sunday, Dominique de Villepin is passed to the counter-attack yesterday in is indignant on Europe 1, and then to UMP deputies, to current issues in the Assembly, and later in the day at a Government seminar, to have been the subject of a "campaign of slander and vile lies." "Too, it is too much," he said. "I have at no time been aware and I'm never interested me no list (...).". I made that my duty. "" This case has been orchestrated, organized on the basis of truncated documents ", continued his entourage, multiplying words like"scheme, manipulation, instrumentation", which appear to be Nicolas Sarkozy.

On the latter, is unsettling that the Prime Minister seeks to endorse the position of the victim. "I want to know the truth, whatever the consequences, I not transigerai not" launched Nicolas Sarkozy before the UMP deputies yesterday, by doing a "moral".

How can the Government continue to act in such a climate of rivalry between number one and number two The question plunges the great mass of UMP deputies in a deep discount, as the machinery of Government is almost stopped since the launch of the SCE, mid-January. "There is a strong rejection of our electorate: you take care of your small business without trying to solve our daily problems, they seem to say", reported the MP Laurent Wauquiez.

Few new ideas

The Prime Minister is a tomorrow press conference to launch new avenues of action, always employment, but also on health (tobacco control) and the purchasing power, while the increase in the price of oil may affect the consumption of the French, as shown in the monthly barometer BVA for BFM-"Les Echos" - Akerys (see opposite). "Our compatriots ahead of purchasing power, employment, education", Dominique de Villepin insisted yesterday in relying on the "good results" registered unemployment. But, in practice, few new ideas emerge, if not, perhaps, to boost the minimum wage in July. The French surveyed by BVA are also without real illusion. The economic policy of the Government reached this month above its record unpopularity since this question with only 23 of positive opinions.