TIME EUROPE
October 9, 2000, Vol. 156 No. 15
Tax, Lies and Videotape
A juicy political scandal marks a nasty, if bizarre, beginning to the Chirac-Jospin presidential race
By BRUCE CRUMLEY Paris
The high drama of French political scandal began resembling the theater of the absurd last week. Beyond-the-grave accusations implicating conservative President Jacques Chirac in illegal party financing were swiftly spun around to attack the integrity of Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and his leftist allies. That plot reversal — scripted with outrage, magical incantation, improbable memory failure and a cameo by a fashion celebrity — marked an emphatic end to the polite Chirac-Jospin powersharing known as cohabitation.
Hostilities exploded with reports in the daily Le Monde of a videotaped confession by property developer Jean-Claude Méry claiming he ran a kickback scheme providing millions of dollars in illicit funding to Chirac's Rally for the Republic (rpr) party in the '80s and early '90s. Recorded three years before Méry's 1999 death, the account describes the system as "working for Chirac's benefit" politically. It also recalls a delivery of a nearly $660,000 slush fund to a top rpr advisor as Chirac — who was both mayor of Paris and Prime Minister at the time — looked on. While the tape cannot be used in court, legal authorities seized copies as part of investigations into allegations that rpr kickback schemes were run out of Chirac's City Hall. In a televised appearance to answer Le Monde's report, a furious Chirac described the posthumous revelation as "abracadabrantesque" and its claims as "lies."
Before Chirac's allies could begin their spin control, a tax lawyer who had worked with Méry told investigators he'd given former Socialist Finance Minister and key Jospin aide Dominique Strauss-Kahn a copy of the taped confession in 1999 — at a time when he was considered a contender for the rpr-held Paris mayor's office and might have viewed Méry's confession as a potential campaign weapon. Strauss-Kahn — who was forced to resign as Finance Minister later in 1999 under suspicion of corruption — admitted last week he had received the tape but never knew its contents. Press reports claimed the attorney had asked Strauss-Kahn to intervene on behalf of a client — designer Karl Lagerfeld — to reduce a $39.5 million tax fine. Both men later denied influence was used to reduce Lagerfeld's fine to its final $6.6 million. The authorities are investigating whether Strauss-Kahn concealed evidence.
The twist allowed conservatives to contend Jospin and his allies knew about their former partner's covert possession and underhanded designs, and connived in their cover- up. Some government supporters responded by vigorously repudiating Strauss-Kahn, though most struggled to redirect attention to the tape's dire implications about the honesty of Chirac and his party. Meanwhile, French voters, increasingly disenchanted with the political process (only 30% bothered to vote in a Sept. 24 referendum to reduce the presidential term), know that the current psychodrama is only Act I in a long run-up to the probable Chirac-Jospin battle for the presidency in 2002.
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October 9, 2000
COVER STORY
Wave Goodbye
A humiliating defeat in the Yugoslav elections leaves Milosevic clinging to power. But his days are numbered
EUROPE
Nej!: The Danish Fallout
Denmark's stunning rejection of the euro will be felt across the European Union and beyond
A Tale of Two Cities
After 10 years of unity, Germany is still a nation divided by its past and burdened by the costs of its future
Poland's Second Left Wing
Lech Walesa and Solidarity each face crushing electoral defeat
Tax, Lies and Videotape
A juicy political scandal marks a nasty, if bizarre, beginning to the Chirac-Jospin presidential race
Bounty Descendants Hunt A Future
Like their mutinous ancestors, the people of Pitcairn face hard times
MIDDLE EAST
Bibi Bounces Back
Netanyahu's corruption case is dropped, but will he rejoin — and be welcomed into — the political fray?
OLYMPICS
Sydney's Glorious Failure
Australia shows the world that a clean, orderly Olympics can be a winner
THE ARTS
The Fashion Games
These seven up-and-coming fashion designers are the ones to watch as they show their stuff for spring
DEPARTMENTS
Techwatch
World Watch
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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