He was known as the “untouchable” or the “bulldozer” — an affable rogue who sailed through one of the longest political careers in Europe dodging sleaze allegations stacked up against him.
However, former French president Jacques Chirac may finally appear in the dock this week in an historic corruption trial in the same courtroom that saw Marie-Antoinette sentenced to the guillotine.
A Paris court was to yesterday begin examining the case of the “bogus jobs,” a party funding corruption scandal dating back to Chirac’s time as mayor of Paris in the 1990s.
Chirac is accused of masterminding a scheme in which cronies who worked for his political party, were on the Paris City Hall payroll, receiving salaries for jobs that never existed. Chirac is expected to take the stand today.
However, a legal argument to be raised by one of the other nine defendants could see the trial postponed before the frail former president is due to be smuggled in via a side door to avoid the cameras.
Chirac will be the first former French head of state to stand trial since Marshal Philippe Petain, the leader of France’s Nazi collaborationist regime, was convicted of treason and shipped into exile after the World War II.
The 78-year-old, who boasts one of the longest continuous political careers in Europe — twice president, twice prime minister and 18 years mayor of Paris — enjoyed immunity from prosecution as head of state.
For decades, lawyers have unsuccessfully tried to bring him to justice over several alleged sleaze affairs, including misuse of public funds and scandals over free flights and expenses.
The only charges now left against him concern the scheme to illegally use Paris City Hall funds for work benefiting the party political machine that ensured his election as president in 1995. Two cases over fake jobs have been brought together for this trial.
The trial is a test of French attitudes to party funding corruption, which has plagued the political system on both left and right for decades. The unspoken rule was that if money was not being siphoned directly into politicians’ own pockets, the system would look the other way.
Former French prime minister Alain Juppe, a close Chirac ally, was convicted over the fake jobs scandal in 2004 and received a 14-month suspended prison sentence and a year’s ban from politics. Yet he has just been appointed French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s new foreign minister and de facto deputy president.
While not acknowledging wrongdoing, Chirac and his party struck a deal last year with the Socialist-run Paris City Hall to pay back 2.2 million euros (US$3.08 million) for the jobs in question. As a result, city hall will not be among Chirac’s accusers in court. The Paris state prosecutor said there was not enough evidence for a prosecution.
The trial has done little to dent Chirac’s popularity. Despite the drift of his last years as president, his poll ratings have soared since he left office.
His wife, Bernardette Chirac, recently denied reports that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s, but said: “He has difficulties walking and hearing and sometimes has trouble with his memory.”
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