Could France’s (bottled) Watergate wash away Macron’s credibility? Article by The Spectator

European media continue to actively cover a scandal whose trail leads directly to the Élysée Palace. The controversy erupted after it emerged that the government of French President Emmanuel Macron had concealed information about the illegal processing of mineral water by food industry giant Nestlé.

British magazine The Spectator has published an article by Jonathan Miller, dedicated to the so-called “Watergate” scandal currently unfolding in France. Caliber.Az reprints the material.

"History repeats itself. In the beginning, there was Watergate, and then one gate followed another: Camillagate, Partygate, Monicagate. Hundreds, thousands of gates. And now, it’s Watergate again, in France this time, as a wave of allegations about the cover-up of a bottled water treatment scandal threatens to submerge President Emmanuel Macron.

What did Macron know and when did he know it? A French Senate investigation this week found that Nestlé used unauthorised purification methods (such as ultraviolet treatment and microfiltration) on products labelled as ‘natural mineral water’. EU and French law says bottled water must remain untreated. The Senate report also found that the French government ‘at the highest level’ was aware of these practices as far back as 2022, but covered up the scandal.

In February, Macron was asked about the Élysée’s role in the Nestlé case and claimed there had been no ‘agreement’ or ‘collusion’. Yet now, a large tranche of heavily redacted documents have been released alongside the Senate report, detailing conversations between the President’s staff and Nestlé and its lobbyists. Watergate the sequel cannot be compared to the crisis of drug gangs, the porosity of borders, the immobility of government, and the stagnation of France’s economy. Nevertheless, it shows how government and industry danced in tango when it came to the scandal.

My own skim of the documents reveals, for example, a 2024 email from an Elysée adviser describing a meeting with ‘the head of Nestlé on Monday’ at which concerns were discussed including excessive use of filtration treatment, ‘with potential impacts on the affected sites and a communications issue on how to manage the sequence.’ Interpretation: never mind the problems with the water, it’s one for the spin doctors.

Sparkling or still, bottled water is as essential on French tables as bread, wine and cheese. The French have never fully trusted tap water, for sound reasons, given the rank pits that passed for plumbing in comparatively recent memory. Although tap water is now drinkable, and despite official efforts to persuade the French to drink tap water instead, French consumers have conditioned themselves to drink water from bottles, often believing it to have mysterious health benefits for the gut.

The water shelves at my local supermarket offer a dazzling array of brands, including special expensive red bottles of Perrier with tiny bubbles. Consequently, bottled water is a gigantic, €20 billion industry in France.

At the centre of the affair is Nestlé, the gigantic Swiss food processor which makes everything from Nespresso to your KitKat chocolate wafer to your cat’s Purina pet food. Nestlé was dinged last year when its Perrier brand was ordered to destroy more than two million bottles of water due to E. coli and faecal bacteria found in one of its wells.

Nestlé brands Vittel, Contrex, and Hépar are all accused of using unauthorised purification methods on products labelled as natural mineral water, to make them safe for consumption. Last year, the firm agreed to pay a €2 million fine to avoid legal action.

Nestlé has form when it comes to food safety scandals, despite its wholesome image. In early 2022, serious E. coli infections in children were linked to the consumption of Nestlé frozen pizzas. Dozens of children across France fell seriously ill, with several developing hemolytic uremic syndrome, a life-threatening complication. At least two deaths were reported.

Still, Nestlé will probably survive this bottled water scrape, especially after it is forced to perform some corporate grovelling and make deputy heads roll. So will Macron, even if he is discovered to have received a lifetime supply of Nespresso capsules from George Clooney personally.

Meanwhile, the French, I suspect, will continue to consume bottled water. They imagine their bowels depend on it," Miller wrote.