The flow of accusations against Eric Woerth continues undammed. Yesterday Liberation published a letter allegedly sent by Woerth while he was Budget Minister, which purportedly showed he had intervened to get a 27 million Euro tax rebate paid to the estate of the late sculptor César. Allegedly at the behest of the executor of César's will, who by pure coincidence is a major donator to the ruling party, UMP. Which, by the way, had one Eric Woerth as treasurer at the time. Of course Woerth has said it was the tax office who decided on the rebate, and the executor in question, Alain-Dominique Perrin, has denounced the letter as fake. This morning Liberation is standing by its story, the most extraordinary part of which I find to be that a sculptor I've never heard of can be worth so much money that he has to pay enough tax to even consider a 27 million Euro rebate. Though I've since learned that I'm very familiar with one of his works - le Patineur, next to the opera house in Lyon. Hmm…
Meanwhile the World Cup debacle is reaching its final phase. Bad boy Anelka has been giving his version, chiming in with the general player chorus - it was all Domenech's fault. This morning the new coach, Laurent Blanc, announced the squad for Les Bleus' first game since the World Cup, a friendly against Norway. He'd already decided not to pick any of the 23 grèvistes for this game, so the next French football team to take the field will have a decidedly unfamiliar look.
