Others step up to support Sarko's version, but it's pretty clear no one believes them.

First Secretary of the French Socialist party (PS), Martine Aubry, has a two-page interview today in the popular Sunday paper, Le Journal du dimanche. It looks as if she's decided it's time to start rolling out some firepower, Sarkozy's motor misfiring at the moment and regional elections ahead, where the left has a lot to lose. And the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall leads her into a little historical analysis, which is more than the PS has dared come up with for a while.