L’ereditiera francese contro la figlia e l’intrigo politico. Steven Erlanger sul New York Times
L’affaire Bettencourt, il caso dell’ereditiera che sta creando scandalo in Francia, visto dagli Stati Uniti d’America. Il New York Times dedica alla vicenda un lungo articolo partendo proprio dall’intrigo che ha scatenato il caso: la lite tra l’ereditiera di L’Oreal e sua figlia, causata dai “generosi” regali della signora Bettencourt ad un fotografo. Il tutto è stato registrato da un maggiordomo decisamente poco fedele che ha rivenduto le conversazioni ai giornali finendo per inguaiare il ministro Eric Woerth ed anche il Nicolas Sarkozy, già alle prese con un forte calo di popolarità. BlitzQuotidiano ve lo propone come articolo del giorno.
An aging heiress. An angry daughter. A society photographer. A renegade butler and an embittered accountant. Secret tapes. A famous company with a nasty past and long political connections. An unpopular president and a cabinet minister with a taste for money, and tales of illegal cash donations in envelopes. Éric Woerth, the French labor minister, and his wife, Florence, have been drawn into the Bettencourt inquiries. This romantic stew is known as the “Bettencourt affair,” after the elderly heiress of the L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt, 87.
What began as a fierce family fight, with her daughter charging that Mrs. Bettencourt’s entourage has been manipulating her to steal her fortune, has shaken the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The affair has captivated France even as it enters the long summer holiday, with daily headlines, detentions and constant leaks. Mr. Sarkozy’s sometimes clumsy efforts to contain the scandal are similar to BP’s in the gulf — the flow of crude appears contained but the problem is far from over. His approval ratings, already low from France’s economic problems, have fallen further with the Bettencourt skullduggery. […]
