Au terme du mandat que vous m'avez confié, le moment sera venu pour moi de vous servir autrement. Je ne solliciterai pas vos suffrages pour un nouveau mandat. D'une manière différente, mais avec un enthousiasme intact et la même passion d'agir pour vous, je continuerai à mener les combats qui sont les nôtres, les combats de toute ma vie, pour la justice, pour le progrès, pour la paix, pour la grandeur de la France.

[At the end of the mandate you entrusted to me, the moment will have come for me to serve you differently. I will not seek your votes for a new mandate. In a different way, but with enthusiasm intact and the same passion to act on your behalf, I will continue to lead the struggles that are ours, my life-long struggles, for justice, for progress, for peace, for the glory of France.]

Jack,
president for now of the Republic,
soaping the French for an ex-presidential sinecure
PALAIS DE L'ÉLYSÉE le dimanche 11 mars 2007 (Élysée)

How best for ex-Jack to serve justice, progress, peace, the faded glory of France? It's so obvious we fear ex-Jack may overlook this call to duty, to justice, to France: Become a voluntary "non-assisted" witness for the prosecution.

This will involve ex-Jack in the struggles of justice for years. And who knows? If he serves France well in this new capacity, French justice may be restored to the virtues of real justice.

UNRESOLVED SCANDALS AWAIT CHIRAC'S DEPARTURE

PARIS March 15, 2007 (IHT) - When President Jacques Chirac leaves office in May, a fat legal file carrying his name will come out of a safe at a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre and land on the desk of Alain Philibeaux, an investigating magistrate.

A dormant party-financing case in Nanterre, which focuses on the time when Chirac, who is 74, was mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995, is the most serious of a number of scandals that could catch up with him when he loses immunity from prosecution accorded to the head of state.

Two magistrates familiar with the case said that it was "extremely likely" that Philibeaux, one of France's most senior investigators of financial crime, would summon Chirac for questioning as early as June over allegations that he had been involved in an intricate kickback scheme in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The magistrates, who declined to be identified because the investigation is continuing, said that Chirac probably would not be called as a regular witness, but as an "assisted witness," accompanied by his lawyers, because the testimony concerned allegations against him.

... Chirac's cases will provide a test for the French judicial system, which has long faced criticism for ties with the political class. Scandals have been a regular feature in administrations of all political colors, but few of them have resulted in high-level convictions. Magistrates insisting on independence have sometimes made claims of intimidation.

"If Chirac is pursued, as every regular citizen would be, it would create a powerful precedent," one of the magistrates familiar with the Nanterre case said. "For starters, it would affect the way future presidents act."

Chirac has denounced as "lies, calumny and manipulation" all the allegations of wrongdoing.

CORRUPTION POLICE TO INTERVIEW CHIRAC IN MONTHS

PARIS March 15, 2007 (Telegraph) - French justice officials confirmed for the first time today that Jacques Chirac will be called for questioning over allegations of corruption after mid-June - a month after he steps down as president on May 16.

... The Elysée palace said that "since this information is unsourced, there is not call for a reaction".

... A spokesman for the Nanterre court, where the Chirac dossier lies dormant, said that "no act of procedure has yet been programmed concerning a dossier in which the name of the president is quoted". In other words, no summons documents have yet been drawn up. ... The main piece of evidence is a handwritten note from 1993, in which he apparently asked for a city hall employee to receive a payment for work done for the RPR.

Alas, we strongly suspect ex-Jack has other plans (and here and here).

Other background posts can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.

PFFT (What is this?): Fixed to leave 4¾ | Answering the call to justice 0 | Rayonnement français 0