Already, just 24 hours after the announcement that Jacques Chirac had been “mis en examen” (an official investigation had been opened against him) for corrupt practices, people are saying that he is too old, too frail, he shouldn’t be subjected to the ignominy of a trial, all that happened a long time ago, a line should be drawn beneath it. Forget it and let him live out his retirement in peace – after all, nobody was hurt, no terrible crime was committed. Possibly. It is a hard decision, and probably there is no right or wrong answer.

Ten years ago many people said the same thing about the members of the elite being rounded up for corruption by Eva Jolie, Eric Halphen and other examining magistrates. People said then that those charges referred to the past, another country, where things were done differently. Draw a line under it, they said, France is not the same now. Five years ago, during a BBC radio interview a senior French civil servant attacked me for a Prospect article on corruption in France, saying exactly the same thing, that all that was passé, French politicians are no longer corrupt, he said. Today Le Figaro says “Jacques Chirac’s mise en examen illustrates the end of an epoch and of a system.” Most of the French press agrees, that this is all vieux jeu, it doesn’t happen any more.

There are several reasons for not investigating M. Chirac. As well as the above, there is the question of whether France needs to be reminded of this sordid recent history just at the moment when it is struggling to turn the page with new hope and a new president, while at the same time suffering from strikes, low wages, high cost of living, sluggish growth, uncontrollable euro and frankly not a lot to laugh about. Don’t let’s add another depressive factor into the equation.

And yet, surely there is such a thing as truth? Don’t we want to know the truth? Do we want future historians to wonder eternally whether or not France’s 5th President of the 5th Republic was corrupt? Do we want them to make their judgements on hearsay?

There is another reason: the implication in today’s editorials is that today’s politicians are squeaky clean. Yet, as I wrote in a different Prospect article on political corruption in January of this year, 78% of French people consider their government “quite or very” corrupt. 70% believe their president [that is, Jacques Chirac] is corrupt, and 68% say MP’s are too. Whether or not they really are corrupt, with that sort of public image you would think there might be some concerted effort to purge. All politicians are open to corruption and doubtless many are tempted - but that doesn’t mean to say the voters have to turn a blind eye.

Certainly the present investigation into Jacques Chirac is looking at malpractices that happened when he was mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995 (when he became president). However, saying it all happened too long ago is not a reason for not investigating, nor is it a reason for deciding to amnesty the former president if there are charges to answer. It is, however, an excellent reason for changing the way the French legal system works - and what better way to make a clean break with the past, to truly draw a line under all that undoubtedly dodgy practice? Reformers of French justice like Rachida Dati should be asking themselves why it takes so long to bring members of the elite to court. M. Chirac of course had special reasons, spending 12 years in an untouchable cocoon, but all the major corruption trials of the past decade have involved old men staggering into court with their zimmer frames, their naturally watery eyes are mistaken for tears of regret. Inevitably the court takes pity on them and they receive suspended sentences. That example can only encourage their successors. Like those now middle-aged involved in the Clearstream affair, and how many others…..?

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 22nd, 2007 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Political. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.