His 18-year stint as mayor of Paris and the murky finances of his Gaullist party came back to haunt President Jacques Chirac yesterday, when it was revealed that his close associate of two decades, the former Prime Minister Mr Alain Juppe, has been placed under judicial investigation for misappropriation of public funds, complicity to defraud and abuse of power.
Mr Juppe has not been formally charged with these crimes, but under French law he is officially suspected of having obtained Paris municipal salaries, as well as salaries paid by private French companies, for dozens of people who were in reality employed by the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR), the political party founded by Mr Chirac.
Mr Chirac was the mayor of Paris from 1977 until he became president in 1995. Mr Juppe was the third-ranking official at the Paris town hall, responsible for city finances, from 1983 until 1995.
The two men were so close that when Mr Chirac became president in 1995 he chose Mr Juppe as his prime minister. The former director of Mr Chirac's Paris cabinet is also being investigated.
Some politicians publicly questioned yesterday why Mr Chirac himself has not been placed under investigation. When allegations of up to 300 fictitious jobs at the Paris town hall were made by a former city personnel manager last May, the Justice Minister, Mrs Elisabeth Guigou, said presidential immunity does not cover offences committed before the president took office.
Mr Patrick Stefanini, who served as a deputy to Mr Juppe at the RPR and at the prime minister's office, received a Paris municipal salary, but investigators have found no evidence that he actually worked for the city.
Mr Noredine Cherkaoui, who led the RPR's youth group from 1990 until last year, and who was responsible for organising Mr Juppe's travel outside Paris, has admitted to receiving a municipal salary when he in fact worked for the party.
This is the third time that Mr Chirac's name has been explicitly raised in the corruption scandal. Last April, the former RPR treasurer and present member of parliament, Mr Robert Galley, told judges that in 1984 "Jacques Chirac told me how poor the movement was, that we had to use our imagination to find the money we needed. He told me he was counting on me to find money".
On August 19th, the satirical weekly, Canard Enchaine, published a 1990 letter from Mr Juppe to Mr Chirac requesting a promotion for Mr Philippe Martel, an RPR employee who, the Canard said, received a municipal salary. "This excellent fellow must not be penalised," Mr Chirac wrote in the margin.
Mr Juppe, now a member of parliament and the mayor of Bordeaux, told French television last night that there was no legislation on the financing of political parties when he became secretary-general of the RPR. If there were irregularities, he said, he corrected them while in office.
AFP adds:
The judicial move is less than a formal criminal charge, and means the former prime minister may be formally indicted by a court or cleared.
The far-right National Front's number two, Mr Bruno Megret, immediately entered the fray, saying he was astonished that Mr Chirac had not been charged as well. He said that Mr Chirac "could not have been ignorant of what was going on" and that there was "major embezzlement".
