PARIS: French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy lashed out Thursday over the court-ordered wiretapping of his phones, with a comparison to snooping by East Germany's Stasi police that drew outrage from current leader Francois Hollande.
Sarkozy, 59, referred to the feared communist-era secret police in a stinging piece for the newspaper Le Figaro, in which he broke a long silence on mounting corruption claims against him that are undermining his chance of a comeback.
"This is not an extract of the marvellous film 'The Lives of Others' on East Germany and the activities of the Stasi. It's not the actions of a dictator against his opponents. This is France," he wrote.
That earned a stern rebuke from Hollande, the Socialist who in 2012 elections defeated Sarkozy and took over France's presidency.
"To raise the idea that our country, our republic, might not be founded on liberty is to introduce a doubt that is baseless," he said.
"Any comparison with dictatorships is obviously intolerable."
Hollande -- while saying he "will not respond" to any row -- added that he had a duty as head of state to uphold the independence of the courts and due process under the law.
Sarkozy, a conservative who served just one term from 2007 to 2012 before losing to Hollande, is widely seen as positioning himself for a return bid for the presidency in 2017. Hollande's record-low popularity -- less than two years after taking office -- had appeared to give him a boost.
But Sarkozy's image has become marred by an increasingly tangled web of scandals, culminating with allegations in the press this month that he attempted to pervert the course of justice -- information reportedly gleaned from excerpts of tapped phone conversations with his lawyer.
The publication this week of more detailed extracts of the conversation was seen by many as a nail in the coffin of his comeback ambition.
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