If you haven't quite kept track of the "Clearstream affair" currently gripping the French political establishment, you certainly won't be alone. The Economist did a pretty good job of setting out the finer details last week. Essentially, the affair pivots on whether Dominique de Villepin asked a top spy called General Rondot to dig up dirt on his rival, the interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who was wrongly suspected of having received kickbacks from the sale of French frigates to Taiwan. Mr de Villepin says he didn't.
That denial is becoming harder and harder to sustain, which is why today's Guardian leader suggests the French PM may have to resign even before Tony Blair leaves Downing Street. But the affair developed an additional twist today. As Le Monde reports, the latest documents to be seized by the judges investigating the affair appear to contradict explanations supplied by Villepin, the defence minister Michele Alliot-Marie and - wait for it - Jacques Chirac himself.
The documents leaked to Le Monde contain a phrase that will probably come to haunt the French PM and his boss. General Rondot's notes record Villepin as saying: "Si nous apparaissons, le PR [Président de la République] et moi, nous sautons." The PM appears to have been suggesting that if Chirac were linked with the undercover investigation into Sarkozy's business affairs then both Chirac and Villepin would have to resign.
This is all good news for Sarkozy - except in one respect. With Chirac himself now dragged into the affair, it will be very difficult for Mr Chirac to sack Mr de Villepin. The president's own head is now on the block. Can he survive until the presidential elections next year?
"Chirac must resign," says the Carnets de nuit blog. "The sooner he goes, the better it will be for everyone." The problem for the opposition Parti Socialiste is that it is unprepared for early elections. Segolene Royal, the party's most obvious candidate, has a great deal to prove before she runs for president.
Le Monde's message boards are buzzing today. "The scandal is obvious. They won't get away with it this time, as they did at the Mairie," one contributor writes, referring to Mr Chirac's scandal-prone stint as mayor of Paris. "You can't hold on long, Messrs Chirac and Villepin, faced with the tenacity of judges and the press whom you've tried to muzzle," says another.
