Season of scandals in Paris

Ulhas Joglekar ulhasj at bom4.vsnl.net.in
Fri Nov 12 18:16:27 PST 1999


10 November 1999 : Season of scandals in Paris By Brian Love PARIS: Dominique Strauss-Kahn was portrayed as a hero of the French ruling class for swiftly resigning as finance minister to deal with accusations of corruption. Many commentators described his exit as honourable, but that speaks reams about the standards of French public life and the spectre of corruption that haunts the entire political establishment. Leading lights of all political persuasions are pursued by an increasingly courageous band of ``clean hands'' investigators on the trail of dodgy party funding, vote-rigging, nepotism or personal enrichment. The demise of the finance minister is just one piece of the jig-saw, but it has renewed hostilities in a guerrilla war which could flush out more destabilising scandals for both the ruling Socialists and the opposition Gaullist RPR Party. A prolonged battle could also set a destructive tone for a presidential election contest in 2002 expected to pit the Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin against the Conservative President Jacques Chirac, the founder of the RPR. The longer the crossfire, the harder it will be for either side to repair their image with the electorate. Strauss-Kahn's resignation hurt Jospin's government not only because he was a crucial minister, but because it put the spotlight back on a broader inquiry into fraud at the MNEF Student Health Insurance Cooperative and its links with Socialist supporters. He quit to fight accusations of wrongdoing linked to 600,000 francs ($97,000) which he received in advisory fees from the MNEF as a business lawyer before becoming minister in mid-1997, conceding possible ``technical irregularities'' behind otherwise legitimate work. The problem for Jospin is that he took power in 1997 with a promise of high moral standards and several other senior socialists are in the investigators' firing line for involvement with the MNEF, a bastion of Socialist activists. At least briefly, the MNEF saga has deflected attention from other scandals which have long dogged the RPR, including investigations into suspected political employment scams and influence-peddling at Paris City Hall, where Jean Tiberi replaced Chirac as mayor in 1995. Tiberi's problems are also a worry for Chirac, who was mayor for 18 years. Scarcely any party is untainted. Among more minor players, the communist party, junior partner in the socialist-led coalition, is also in trouble. Its leader, Robert Hue, has been ordered to stand trial over charges of illegal party funding. He denies any wrongdoing and says the latest escalation risks damaging daily government as well as eroding public confidence irreversibly. ``If the polemics continue, they risk impinging on the major policy considerations at French and international level, and on democracy itself,'' he said. The number of potential victims is far larger than those who have fallen, such as former National Assembly speaker Henri Emmanuelli who received a suspended 18-month jail sentence and was barred from public office for two years in late 1997 for corruption linked to illicit Socialist party funding. Tiberi is under formal investigation and his wife Xaviere is in court, with prosecutors seeking a six-month suspended prison sentence on charges of abusing public funds following an inquiry into the legitimacy of her employment by a regional council. The RPR councillor who paid her 200,000 francs ($31,700) for a brief report on links between the Essonne region and the rest of the French-speaking world said in court that her husband had asked him to give her the project. Jean Tiberi denies wrongdoing and intends to run again for mayor in 2001, but the charges against his wife have wiped out what party support he could count on and led to a more uneasy relationship with Chirac. (AP)


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