TIME EUROPE
December 18, 2000, Vol. 156 No. 25
Jacques Be Nimble
Chirac stays silent as allegations of illegal kickbacks threaten to undermine the French presidency
By THOMAS SANCTON Paris
Will Michel Roussin crack? the political future of President Jacques Chirac may hang on that question, as French magistrates pursue their investigation of an elaborate party funding scheme that allegedly netted $80 million in kickbacks on public works contracts while Chirac was mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995. In recent weeks, testimony by key witnesses has pointed to the central role of one man as organizer and orchestrator of the system: Roussin, 61, former officer in the gendarmes, ex-cabinet minister and, from 1989 to 1993, Chirac's right-hand man in the Paris City Hall.
Arrested and placed under formal investigation on Nov. 30, Roussin was released on bail from Paris' Santé prison six days later after refusing to answer interrogators' questions. Worried officials at the Elysée Palace hope the ramrod-straight ex-military officer will continue to stonewall, since he appears to be the last buffer between the investigators and the President.
Chirac was already under pressure following the publication last September of allegations, based on a videotaped account by a now-deceased former official, that the ex-mayor was involved in a financing scheme linked to construction contracts for low-income housing. The current investigation concerns the awarding of contracts to build or renovate schools in the Paris region.
The way it worked, according to testimony leaked to the French press, is that construction firms in the early 1990s were awarded lucrative contracts on condition that they donate 2% to 3% of the amount to Chirac's Gaullist RPR and other political parties. Corporate donations were legal until 1995, but linking them to such a quid pro quo arrangement would constitute corruption. The key question: whether or not Chirac, as mayor and RPR chief, knew that the gifts were a payback for the contracts — a link that remains to be demonstrated.
Though Roussin is holding his tongue for now, others are not. Louise-Yvonne Casetta, a former unofficial treasurer for the RPR, has testified that Roussin kept Chirac informed about the "company gifts" to the party. But Casetta's lawyer insists that Chirac was told only about legal donations, not about any links to construction contracts. Gilbert Sananès, former head of an RPR-related consulting firm, was released from prison last week after detailing Roussin's central role in handing out contracts and dividing up the spoils. Other witnesses gave similar testimony.
As pressure mounted on Chirac, maverick Socialist deputy Arnaud Montebourg went so far as to call for impeachment proceedings. Chirac's supporters charge that the President is the victim of a political ploy aimed at his credibility before the 2002 presidential elections. But Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, Chirac's likely challenger in 2002, is hardly in a position to exploit the situation: according to witness testimony, the Socialist Party, like its Communist coalition partner and the center-right Republican Party, allegedly received a share of the rake-off as well.
Chirac is unlikely to be impeached and as long as he is President cannot be prosecuted in an ordinary tribunal, though he could be asked to testify as a witness. "Juridically, he faces no risk," says Guy Carcassonne, a professor of constitutional law at Nanterre University, "but politically it's disastrous. The continuing investigation will feed a constant flow of judicial news that can only be bad for him."
For that reason, many people within the Gaullist ranks — and 69% of the public in a recent poll — want the President to speak out publicly about the scandal. Last week, he skirted reporters' questions by saying he was concentrating all his energies on the Nice summit that would cap the French presidency of the European Union. But most observers predict that sooner or later he will have to address the issue. "But that won't stop the process," says political commentator Alain Duhamel. "The critiques and the debates will continue. We're now in a phase of political explanation and confrontation. This is an enormous affair."
Duhamel and others say it is too early to tell how the current investigation will impact on the 2002 election — the latest polls put Chirac and Jospin neck-and-neck — but the President's image has been tarnished, and the emergence of rival candidates in the conservative camp won't help. Like Richard Nixon, Chirac bounced back from repeated setbacks to claim the presidency he had always dreamed of. The question is whether he too will lose that prize in the face of a relentless investigation.
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