Financial scandal threatens to engulf French presidency
By Gerard Naville
World Socialist Web Site
16 September 1998
The latest of a series of investigations into the finances of political parties in
France has led to the indictment of ex-prime minister Alain Juppé and
widespread suspicions of illegal financial practices by President Jacques
Chirac.
Juppé, who was prime minister until June 1997, and Chirac are the two
most prominent political figures to be targeted by the investigating judge of
Nanterre, Patrick Desmure. He has been leading the inquiry into the
finances of the Gaullist party, Rassemblement pour la Republique (RPR),
for the last three years. Also charged is Michel Roussin, an ex-minister in
Juppé's cabinet and prior to that a principal private secretary to Chirac in
his former position as mayor of Paris. The charges have been brought
under the law on financial transparency concerning political parties,
introduced in 1988 and amended in 1990 and 1995.
Juppé has been charged with covering up the payment of staff working for
the RPR by the Paris Council (the capital city's administration) and by
private companies during his tenure as general secretary of the party.
Charges levelled against him include "embezzlement of public funds",
"complicity to and concealment of aggravated breach of trust", and
"concealing the misappropriation of public property".
Chirac's name came up for the first time in relationship to investigations into
illegal party funding in March this year. Robert Galley, treasurer of the
RPR between 1984 and 1990, also under investigation, told the judge that
Chirac had asked him to find money more or less by any means necessary.
Juppé was linked to illegal funding activities when an ex-head of personnel
at the Paris Council, Georges Quémar, told the daily Le Parisien in May
that there were around 200 "fictitious contracts" at the Paris Council during
the 1980s.
A search at the Hotel de Ville, the headquarters of the Paris Council, in the
first week of July produced 15 of these illegal contracts. This became the
basis on which Juppé and Michel Roussin were officially charged and
summonsed to appear before the court on August 21. Four days later,
Juppé intervened on the main television channel, TF1. He accepted
responsibility for everything that happened in the period concerned,
explaining that, all in all, he had worked to "adapt" the RPR's practices to
the new laws once they came into effect.
By "taking responsibility for this entire period", Juppé was clearly trying to
protect Chirac against any further accusations. Nevertheless the following
day the leading daily Le Monde announced that "the investigation was
moving closer to Chirac's presidential election campaign" of 1995. Their
article said that some of the people hired via the suspicious contracts were
active as staff for Chirac's election campaign. They cited one document
carrying Chirac's handwriting as example of his involvement into the murky
system of nepotism practised by the Paris council.
As a consequence of Juppé's indictment, a discussion has started about the
possibility of treating the head of state, Chirac, like any other person if he
has committed actions against the law before he became president. This
line is pushed by the current Minister of Justice, Elisabeth Guigou of the
Socialist Party (PS), but has met strong opposition as an attack on the
functioning of the presidency.
The investigation into the RPR finances started three years ago, just two
months after Chirac became president and Juppé his prime minister. It
originally focussed on unknown figures, most of them treasurers and
ex-treasurers of the RPR. It only started to involve major figures earlier this
year as Jean Tiberi, Chirac's right hand and his successor as mayor of
Paris, and his wife were investigated.
Another investigation has been launched into the finances of the Union pour
la Démocratie Française (UDF), the former coalition partner of the RPR.
In August leaders of the UDF, including its president, François Léotard, an
ex-minister of defence in the Balladur government, were summonsed
before the judge to explain the origins of loans made to one of the parties
in the UDF coalition, Democratie Libérale (DL). The investigation has
prompted accusations and counter-accusations within the UDF and DL,
making the already existing internal warfare even more poisonous. Léotard
refused to sign the protocol of his meeting with the investigating judges.
These investigations are accompanied by a media campaign that is
remarkable in that it takes at face value everything the judges say. Every bit
of evidence and every move by the judiciary is followed by teams of
reporters and widely publicised. Political figures, whose every word was
published as indisputable truths when they were in government, are now
presented in page-long articles as corrupt and shady characters.
Such investigations in the past served the purpose of keeping under control
corrupt financial practices that, if unchecked, would undermine the
credibility of the parties that have constituted the bedrock of the Fifth
Republic. The effect of this investigation, however, is to destabilise the
parties themselves, particularly the Gaullist RPR, whose two top leaders,
Juppé and Chirac, are now under attack.
In the last days of August a number of leaders of the RPR went on the
offensive to oppose what they described as a concerted attempt to
destabilise their party. Philippe Seguin, the party's president, opposed
judicial attacks against the national president as contrary to the constitution.
He told Le Monde on August 28 that the "type of investigation presently
conducted by the judge Patrick Desmure, the consequence of which is to
discredit the politicians and through them, democracy, can well go on for
another 10 or 15 years, if nothing is done." He asked the government to
redefine the laws on party finances, which should only condemn practices
leading to personal enriching. This was opposed by Prime Minister and
Socialist Party leader Lionel Jospin with the argument that such a decision
would look like an amnesty.
Significantly the financial scandal has unfolded over three months that have
been dominated by the bitter conflict between different wings of the main
bourgeois parties over the question of collaborating with the fascist Front
National (FN). Sections of the UDF have actually merged with the FN and
now run regional administrations alongside them. The majority of the RPR
leaders have up to now opposed such an approach. The leading politicians
involved in the two investigations are those who have been most outspoken
against any collusion with the FN because of the fear of destabilising
political life in France and provoking opposition in the working class.
The move to indict Juppé and then Léotard came within weeks of the
French victory in the Soccer World Cup. The success of a French team,
composed for a great part of players whose parents were immigrants, was
used as a rallying point by those politicians opposed to involving the FN in
government. Chirac placed himself at the head of enthusiastic crowds
celebrating a mixture of nationalism and multiculturalism. |
