In 2013, the US agreed not to spy on the French president. However, documents released by WikiLeaks detail conversations held by the country's current leader, Francois Hollande and his two predecessors, who were all wire-tapped by the NSA.
RELEASE: Espionnage Élysée — how the NSA bugged Hollande, Sarkozy and Chirac https://t.co/uflJlxeJdO pic.twitter.com/k8hDycaxNV
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 23, 2015
Referring to the promises made by the US in 2013, the Elysee Palace said in a statement:
"Commitments were made by the US authorities. They must be remembered and strictly respected."
NSA Communications — Carte Blanche
But despite the "commitments" made by the US not to spy on the French, the top-secret documents released by WikiLeaks suggest that the US government gave the NSA carte blanche to intercept the French communications data anyway.
Victim goes to woo abuser: The news that France's top intelligence official will travel to the US over #FranceLeaks is illustrative.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 24, 2015
Meanwhile, Francois Hollande's German counterpart Angela Merkel remains embroiled in a controversy over how complicit the German government was in allowing the NSA to spy on its citizens.
Following the revelations in June 2013 that the NSA had spied on German citizens, former chief of the chancellery Ronald Pofalla told the German public that the US had offered Germany an anti-espionage deal.
US statement re. #NSA spying on #Hollande, avoiding the past tense, very reminiscent of their 2013 #Merkel statement pic.twitter.com/vh3C8Mkojg
— Charlie Skelton (@deYook) June 24, 2015
However, according to documents obtained by Süddeutsche Zeitung, the German government exaggerated the 'no-spy' deal to the public without receiving a clear promise from US President Barack Obama's administration that the US was willing to enter such an agreement.
Obama had only promised to look at the possibility of not spying on Germany and Angela Merkel is facing criticism for allowing the German intelligence agency, the BND, to assist the NSA in spying on European firms and officials.
Paris has summoned the US Ambassador over NSA revelations that the French President and his predecessors were spied upon. An aide to Hollande said the defense council meeting is to "evaluate the nature of the information published by the press on Tuesday evening and to draw useful conclusions."
As for the information published in the press — perhaps most timely of all is the revelation that Hollande gave the approval for secret meetings with German opposition parties to be held behind Merkel's back and to discuss the potential fallout of a Greek exit from the Eurozone, as early as 2012.
