This suggests that Mr Lion had been deliberately singled out as a scapegoat and given no time to defend himself.

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In response, Greece's foreign minister told the BBC that Athens was not the source of the crisis, and that no country should be made a scapegoat.

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In a trice Mr Jospin would no longer be his party's hero, but its scapegoat.

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However, Mr Tiberi, who says he is being made the scapegoat for abuses that predate his term of office, is no longer the sort of friend a president can afford to have.

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