A pathetic political soap opera that began with a lunch between French president François Hollande’s chief of staff and the former prime minister François Fillon dominated questions in the national assembly yesterday.

The chief of staff, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, one of Hollande’s closest friends, claims Fillon asked the Élysée Palace to speed up investigations into Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign finances – especially the payment of a fine by the former president’s party, the UMP, on Sarkozy’s behalf – when they lunched at Le Doyen in Paris on June 24th.

Jouyet initially denied the story, then denied his denial when he was reminded that Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme of Le Monde recorded their interview with him.

"I, like many of us, have noticed the hideous twitching of nostrils this past week, and the odours of sewage coming out of the Élysée, in particular from the chief of staff's office," Henri Guaino, a deputy in the national assembly and Sarkozy's former speechwriter, said to prime minister Manuel Valls.

Guaino compared what he calls “manipulation and destabilisation” by Hollande’s É

lysée to a scandal that was intended to destroy the late president Georges Pompidou. Valls reminded Guaino that the blows against Pompidou “came from his own camp”.

For as much as the “barons” of the UMP hate the ruling socialists, they hate each other more. Fillon was humiliated and belittled as a mere “collaborator” for the five years he served as Sarkozy’s prime minister.

When it was over, Sarkozy backed Jean-François Copé over Fillon for the UMP leadership. And in the current three-way contest for the UMP’s presidential nomination, Sarkozy has continually harked back to the Copé-Fillon war to portray Fillon as a divisive figure.

Fillon’s popularity plummeted a year ago, when he made statements favourable to the extreme right-wing National Front.

He vehemently denies the allegations made by Jouyet, and has threatened to sue both Jouyet and Le Monde. A judge will decide tomorrow whether to give the recording of Jouyet's interview to Fillon.

Versions of the June 24th lunch are diametrically opposed. In an interview published yesterday

by Le Figaro, "the third man" at the lunch, Antoine Gosset-Grainville, who has worked as a close aide to both Jouyet and Fillon, said the lunch was scheduled at the initiative of Jouyet.

The Élysée claims Fillon requested the lunch.

“At no time did François Fillon solicit the slightest intervention by Jean-Pierre Jouyet on any political matter. I am categorical,” Gosset-Grainville said, supporting Fillon’s version of the lunch.

Fillon is nonetheless viewed as a traitor by much of the right. Around the time of his lunch with Jouyet he was telling all and sundry that the UMP should not have paid Sarkozy’s €63,615 fine and that Sarkozy should have to reimburse it.

Regarding Sarkozy, Jouyet told Davet and Lhomme that Fillon said: “Hit him fast! Hit him fast! Don’t you realise that if you don’t hit him fast, you are going to let him come back?”

The scandal has strengthened Sarkozy’s portrayal of himself as a victim and he is almost certain to be elected president of the UMP on November 29th.

At a rally this week, Sarkozy portrayed himself as the guarantor of unity. He attacked the Élysée, asking: “How far will the folly of wanting to destroy and sully everything go? I will not give in to provocation and I have chosen to ignore the tide of mud that they want to spread over the French republic in the interest of our country.”

National Front leader Marine Le Pen gains most from the scandal. She has accused the socialists and conservatives of engaging in “the same tricks and lies” and of “working together.”

The scandal weakens Hollande, who was counting on Jouyet to avoid this sort of mishap. The Le Monde journalists meet

the president frequently for a book they will publish when he leaves office. Hollande is suspected of having tipped them off regarding Fillon’s alleged request.

The right again demanded Jouyet’s resignation yesterday. “He is the chief of staff of the Élysée and remains so,” said the government spokesman Stéphane Le Foll. Jouyet “is not the subject,” Le Foll said.

“If there is a subject, above all it’s the UMP.”