The Hindu : Convicted Juppe may quit posts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 04, 2004

International

International

Convicted Juppe may quit posts

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, FEB. 3. Right-wing politicians in France are holding their breath, waiting to hear whether Alain Juppe, former Prime Minister and leader of the President, Jacques Chirac's ruling UMP party, will quit public life or fight it out in the Appeals Court, following his conviction for corruption last week. Mr Juppe was found guilty of allowing employees from Mr Chirac's former RPR party to be put on the payroll of the Paris municipality when Mr Chirac was Mayor and Mr. Juppe its finance director.

The persons holding these fictitious posts continued to do party work while drawing municipal salaries. A court near Paris gave him an 18-month suspended prison term and barred him from holding public office for the next 10 years.

Mr. Juppe is the powerful Mayor of France's wine capital, Bordeaux. He is also a Member of Parliament and the head of the conservative ruling party, the UMP. If he decides not to challenge the conviction, he will have to resign all three posts.

Before the sentence was pronounced, Mr Juppe had said he would resign from the posts he holds, if found guilty. Many are now saying that he should honour that promise. Mr Juppe is expected to make his announcement on prime time television later tonight. The court verdict has also raised questions about Mr Chirac's probity during his term as Mayor of Paris. The Paris municipal budget is nearly 35 billion euros annually and the mayoralty of the French capital has often been used as a stepping-stone to higher office.

For now, Mr Chirac's presidential immunity shields him from investigations into wrongdoing while he was Mayor. However, Mr. Chirac felt obliged to open an inquiry into alleged pressures on the examining magistrates involved in the Juppe trial, following remarks by the trial judge that her offices were regularly broken into and files tampered with. The court president, Catherine Pierce, said on Saturday that judges' offices had been `visited' before and during the trial, their office computers searched and that their telephones — including personal lines — tapped. Threats and pressure against the magistrates have also been alleged — and the verdict against Mr Juppe was prepared on a laptop computer to avoid hackers accessing it.

The Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin's Office announced that an inquiry was being launched into the judge's allegations. "If the allegations are proven, that will be a matter of extreme gravity," the statement said. The Speaker of the National Assembly and the Justice Minister said they would constitute separate investigations.

Right-wing politicians have launched a strenuous campaign painting Mr. Juppe as an upright, capable and honest man who must continue to play a role in French public life. They are also vilifying the examining magistrates and the trial judge as being "partisans of the Left".

Mr Chirac can stay in power for another three years — but without Mr. Juppe by his side to control his party, he could be vulnerable to challengers for his crown.

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