French police have launched a criminal inquiry¹ to trace the bloggers behind rumours³ President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife were both having affairs.

法国警方展开一项刑事调查，对散布萨科奇总统与其夫人双方都有外遇这一谣言的博客进行追踪调查。

All smiles: Carla Bruni has described her marriage to French President Nicolas Sarkozy as a "fairytale"

The inquiry follows a legal complaint filed by the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

It was on a blog housed by the paper's website that the speculation⁴（猜测） about the Sarkozy-Bruni marriage first appeared in March.

The rumours, relayed（转发，中继） around the world, then appeared on newspaper front-pages.

However it now appears that they were based on no more than idle（懒惰的，闲置的） fantasy.

Two employees of the company that runs the newspaper's website have since resigned（辞职，顺从） as a result of the scandal.

Angry outburst

One of them admitted having posted the rumour² - though not having started it.

News of the police investigation⁵ - technically⁶ into "introduction of fraudulent（不正的，欺骗性的） information into a computer system" - follows an angry outburst over the weekend by President Sarkozy's media adviser⁷ Pierre Charon.

He said it was time for "fear to change sides" in the confrontation⁸ between gossip-mongers and the Elysee Palace, and aired the suggestion that the latest rumours may have been a deliberate（故意的） plot to destabilise the presidency⁹.

Mr Charon denied that the Elysee was behind the newspaper's decision to lodge¹⁰ a legal complaint, though he said he welcomed the move.

However, several newspapers have said that Mr Sarkozy actively¹¹ encouraged the Journal Du Dimanche (JDD) to launch proceedings¹².

They note that the president is close friends with Arnaud Lagardere, the millionaire businessman who owns the JDD.

Claims that the infidelity（失真，无信仰） rumours might have been part of a deliberate machination were further echoed on Monday by Mr Sarkozy's lawyer, Thierry Herzog.

He said it was suspicious that gossip targeting both Mr Sarkozy and his wife should have emerged simultaneously¹³.

The original reports said that Mr Sarkozy was having an affair with（风流韵事，绯闻） Ecology Minister Chantal Jouanno, while Carla Bruni was seeing the singer Benjamin Biolay.

"[This] suggests that the rumours are certainly not neutral（中立的，中性的） and that someone is behind them," he said.

"The police inquiry will establish if those who spread the rumours did it on their own account, or were instrumentalised by groups or individuals," he said.