But from Mr Chirac's point of view, Mr Balladur's age means he is no future threat.
Some of Mr Balladur's friends say he is raising the issue merely to quash it.
In any event, Mr Balladur's latest comments were by no means off the cuff.
When Jacques Chirac beat Mr Balladur to the presidency, he reportedly ordered the cancellation of the payments.
Nicolas Bazire, 54, was charged by magistrates investigating allegations of corruption in the election campaign of Edouard Balladur in 1995.
But even Mr Balladur, who withdrew his candidacy last week, and Mrs de Panafieu, who did so this week, can hardly hide their bitterness.
Mr Sarkozy had been a spokesman for Mr Balladur, but a presidency statement said he "never exercised the slightest authority in the campaign financing".
The pragmatic Mr Balladur, 68, has been out of the government since Mr Chirac pipped him in the first round of the presidential contest two years ago.
In terms of experience, there could surely be no better candidate than Edouard Balladur, prime minister from 1993 to 1995 and a past rival of Mr Chirac's for the presidency.
Actually, Mr Balladur has flirted with national preference before.
But ministerial duties and ideas do not always go happily together: as trade minister in the Balladur government of 1993-95, Mr Madelin constantly jibbed at the government's refusal to let the franc fall, correctly predicting a recession.
Edouard Balladur, his centre-right rival, looked unbeatable.
Instead of reviving the popular contact which had enabled him to beat a rival Gaullist, Edouard Balladur, in 1995, Mr Chirac became a prisoner of a Parisian political microcosm which cut him off from the nation and opened the way to the Socialists.
The upright Mr Balladur can hardly, they say, be accused of sympathy for the Front: only this spring, after a regional election, he refused to take the presidency of the Ile de France region (which surrounds Paris) if that meant accepting votes from Fronters.
Mr Sarkozy has strongly denied that he had anything to do with an alleged deal whereby, as part of a contract to sell French submarines to Pakistan, "sweeteners" would be paid to Pakistani officials, and some would be returned as kickbacks to fund the 1995 presidential bid of Eduard Balladur.
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