Chirac escapes judicial inquiry investigation
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.THE PRESIDENT is off the hook - for now. Despite written evidence suggesting that Jacques Chirac knew about the illegal funding of his Gaullist party, a public prosecutor has ruled he cannot be investigated through the normal judicial channels.
But the legal and political reverberations of the scandal of the "300 fictitious employees" at the Paris town hall are far from over.
The Elysee Palace is demanding an investigation into how the French news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP) came to be given the wrong story on Friday night. AFP reported that the President was to be placed under formal investigation, setting alarm bells ringing all over France.
In fact, the public prosecutor had accepted a controversial ruling by the country's constitutional watchdog that the president of the republic was immune from investigation for any alleged crime, whether committed before or during his term of office. The constitutional council ruled in January that a president could be investigated only by a special court - the Haute Cour de Justice de la Republique.
The case arises from a three-year-old investigation of the financing of Mr Chirac's neo-Gaullist party, the RPR. The investigating judge, Patrick Desmure, has found evidence that Paris taxpayers were unwittingly funding the party in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Scores of RPR officials (up to 300 according to one account) were on the city pay-roll.
Mr Chirac was mayor of Paris and president of the RPR at the time. Until last month, no direct evidence had emerged that he knew of what was happening. Judge Desmure has now found a letter from December 1993, in which Mayor Chirac talks of the "excellent" work of a phantom city official for a senior RPR executive.
The official was employed by Paris town hall to liaise with "agricultural organisations" (hardly a priority for a city government). She worked full-time from RPR headquarters. The date of the letter is significant. It is several months after an "amnesty" was declared on illegal party funding, in return for a promise by politicians of all colours to mend their ways.
Judge Desmure can reject the prosecutor's ruling and proceed with a formal investigation of the President. Alternatively, he can refer the case to the Haute Cour, or drop the investigation entirely.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments