· MPs can impeach if future leader breaches their duty
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Wednesday January 17, 2007
The Guardian
Mr Chirac's 12 years as president have been dogged by a number of scandals dating back to his time as mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995, including claims of illegal party funding and kickbacks which have resulted in convictions for some of his associates. He has always denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of corruption. But he has never been questioned by judges because he went straight from mayoralty to presidency in 1995.
When a judge sought to interrogate Mr Chirac during his first term as president, France's highest court was forced to rule on his status, deciding that the president had blanket immunity while in office. The ruling effectively suspended investigation into Mr Chirac's conduct but was not enshrined into law.
During his 2002 re-election campaign, Mr Chirac promised to clarify the status of serving presidents. The resulting bill, drawn up by an independent commission, has been gathering dust for years and is now being rushed through before the presidential election this spring. It offers no protection for Mr Chirac should investigating judges decide to reopen their cases when his mandate ends. However, it would ensure full immunity for serving presidents, sparing future heads of state the messy wrangling Mr Chirac was subjected to. The bill would also give parliament power to impeach the president in the event of a "breach of duty".
Mr Chirac has not said whether he will seek a third term in the two-round election this April and May, although it is thought unlikely. There is no indication whether judges want to revive inquiries focusing on him. Any prosecution for corruption or fraud would have to be brought within a month of him leaving office.
Dozens of people have gone on trial over party funding scandals which revolved around Paris city hall. Last year businessmen and friends of Mr Chirac were found guilty of corruption for a housing scam used to fund his former Rally for the Republic party while he was mayor.
Earlier, Mr Chirac's former cabinet director Michel Roussin was convicted in a kickback scandal involving contracts to repair Paris schools. In 2004, the former prime minister Alain Juppé, considered the president's closest ally, was convicted for his role in the misuse of city funds.
Patrick Devedjian, an adviser to the presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, said last month that it was unlikely Mr Chirac would be pursued by judges: "First because he is innocent, and also because it is not in the country's interest."
Last year, when one of Mr Chirac's former chief legal advisers was appointed public prosecutor of Paris, opposition politicians complained the president was trying to avoid investigation when he steps down.
Judges are said to have been keen to question Mr Chirac over an illegal party funding scandal involving fictitious jobs, which claimed the scalp of his protégé, Mr Juppé. In 2004, the former prime minister was given a 14-month suspended sentence and barred from politics for a year for his part in a scheme to put workers for Mr Chirac's neo-Gaullist RPR on the town hall's payroll in the 1980s.
During yesterday's parliamentary debate, the justice minister Pascal Clement said the new bill allowing a president immunity from prosecution during office "clarified a point of law and so put an end to a sterile political polemic".
The Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal welcomed the proposed changes as "a first step towards modernising our institutions".
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