PARIS — It's the duel of the decade, if you believe the French press, which has lavishly painted a monthlong trial pitting former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin against his longtime rival, President Nicolas Sarkozy, as the ultimate battle between France's alpha politicians.
"Who will kill whom?" ran a recent headline in the French weekly Jeune Afrique. The left-leaning satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo ran a cartoon of a devil-horned Sarkozy holding up De Villepin's head and gripping a bloodstained knife labeled Clearstream, a reference to the bank clearing house at the center of the trial.
The media have reveled in the dramatic juxtaposition of a short, pugnacious Sarkozy against the cool-tempered, tall and unfailingly tanned De Villepin, in a dramatic case many have dubbed "Watergate a la francaise."
Luxembourg-based Clearstream is where some members of France's political and business elite, including Sarkozy, were alleged to have hidden shady cash from the 1991 sale of warships to Taiwan. A list of the purported kickbacks surfaced in 2004 -- and was soon revealed to be a hoax.
Now French prosecutors accuse De Villepin of knowing the list was fake and not stopping a smear campaign that threatened Sarkozy's election to France's presidential throne. The trial hearings end Friday and a final verdict is expected early next year.
Sarkozy filed a formal complaint in connection with the case, as have dozens of others. Yet the eloquent De Villepin has proved a daunting rival. He has used the trial to depict himself as the victim of an obsessed Sarkozy bent on destroying his political career.
"Nicolas Sarkozy promised to hang me from a meat hook; I see that he kept his promise," De Villepin said to journalists Tuesday following a recommendation by France's chief prosecutor that the court give the former prime minister an 18-month suspended sentence and a fine equivalent to $67,370. (Sarkozy reportedly once made the meat hook comment about those accusing him of corrupt dealings.)
In the end, the bogus list didn't prevent Sarkozy from winning the presidency in 2007. Since then, De Villepin has mostly slipped off the political radar.
That is, until this trial.
Last weekend a poll by the daily Le Figaro showed that 16% of roughly 1,000 people surveyed believed De Villepin would be the best candidate to challenge Sarkozy in the next presidential election, in 2012. No others came close to that score.
