When it comes to anti-corruption warriors, the most zealous usually come from the Netherlands (think Sophie in ‘t Veld, Paul Tang, Marietje Schaake or Thijs Reuten).
But French politicians, especially MEPs, also like to position themselves on the pedestal of the righteous. From all ends of the spectrum. Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, Raphael Glucksmann or Manon Aubry are just a few examples.
President Macron himself hasn’t shied away from offering harsh criticism to others’ conduct, either.
From that position, it must be even more embarrassing to watch the latest series of scandals as it engulfed Paris, pushing the already embattled government to the brink of collapse. Again.
When he won the presidential seat, Macron promised a new era to the country.
He has titled his book “Revolution”, after all. A time when French politics would be cleaned up from corruption. He asked politicians to look in the mirror and cleanse their souls, because “we need to restore trust in politics by being transparent, accountable, and responsive to the needs of citizens”.
Several years and many prime ministers later, he hasn’t gotten any closer to it – if anything, the announced protests and strikes against (current, seventh) Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu show that he’s slowly inched even farther away.
A tragic warning that it’s not just getting through the average American traffic cop that proves to be a wall too climb to high for the president who wants to be the strongest person of the EU yet is unable to keep his own country in order.
Though Macron has nothing to do with it, former President Nicholas Sarkozy’s recent conviction (he was sentenced to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy in the Libya corruption case) is just the juicy cherry on the top of the cake. Just another case throwing widespread corruption in French politics into the limelight.
The Les Républicains might seize the opportunity to paint this as the proof of the independence of the judiciary (or can pressure Macron into giving a presidential pardon to the victim of a ‘tsunami of shame’), but all in all, it’s more the proof of a systemic corruption deeply embedded within the French elite.
Transparency International’s yearly Corruption Perceptions Index proves a sharp decline in France’s position, on the verge of falling into the category of “at risk of losing control of corruption”.
Now, two more names joined the illustrious (notorious?) list of former presidents, prime ministers and ministers, that includes, beyond Sarkozy, such heavyweights as Jacques Chirac, Alain Juppé or Marine Le Pen.
In fact, since Emmanual Macron has assumed the presidency, French politics has shown more surprise twists than all the Greek dramas combined: a permanent state of conflict of interests and corruption. (Anyone remembering Macron appointing Richard Ferrand as head of the Constitutional Council? The Alstom Case? The Rothschild Gate? Or the McKinsey Contract Scandal of 2022? Just to name a few.)
Altogether, 26 of his ministers have been implicated in political and legal scandals, starting with Minister Delegate in charge of SMEs, Alain Griset, who was sentenced to six months in prison. Thus far, the balance is as shocking as it is horrifying: 7 convictions, 9 indictments and 11 ongoing investigations, and counting.
Freshly appointed Minister of Labour Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet has been accused by an NGO of having reduced the contributions owed by a company.
According to the complaint filed by the AC Association!!Anticorruption, Ms. Panosyan-Bouvet intervened to reduce the social security contributions owed by the company Setforge on one of its sites in Bouzonville (Lorraine). Other possible offences included in the accusation are illegal taking of interests, the embezzlement of public funds, abuse of authority, misuse of company assets and the inaccurate presentation of annual accounts.
Quite a list.
The minister claimed that she has “no link either directly or indirectly with this company and its buyer” (Setforge was sold in 2021).</u> She stressed that it was a justifiable “act of management”, one fully compliant with regulations allowing a minister to take “responsibility for filling a legal vacuum or an interpretation of the law”.
The accusation claims the contrary, pointing out that the minister might have acted against the advice of the administration and possibly a court decision (that ruled against the company), depriving Social Security from a hefty sum.
Slightly astonishing in a moment when the Social Security account is in the red (with app. 15.3 billion euros in 2024) because of lack of revenue.
Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet has since resigned from her post, possibly wanting to spare Macron from more scandal.
Another former minister, currently mayor to Paris’s seventh district, Rachida Dati is no stranger to corruption accusations. Now, that her former boss is headed to jail (she was justice minister under Sarkozy from 2007 to 2009), she might join him behind bars eventually.
She’s been targeted by several such claims before, in fact. One such report (currently under investigation) states that she has received 299,000 euros in undeclared “fees” from GDF Suez in 2010-2011 (when she was a MEP and lawyer).
It was announced during the summer that the former culture minister was heading to trial alongside the former CEO of Renault-Nissan Carlos Ghosn. The investigation was started in 2019 on the suspicion that she lobbied for the Renault-Nissan group while at the EU.
The charges include a wide range of corruption related offenses, for example (in Dati’s case), “passive corruption and influence peddling by a person holding an elected public office within an international organization” and “concealment of abuse of power and breach of trust”. Dati is also accused of accepting 900,000 euros in lawyer’s fees from a Netherlands-based subsidiary of Renault – even though she was not hired by the company.
Just recently, another accusation was added to the previous list.
Rachida Dati, currently the Les Républicains’ candidate for the mayor of Paris, has been accused of failing to declare luxury jewellery (19 items worth about 420,000 euros). Probably forgot this insignificant amount compared to her was portfolio of other assets, real estate in France and Morocco, valued at app. 5.6 million euros. Failure to declare such valuable items to France’s transparency watchdog can lead to a criminal conviction (up to three years in jail) and a fine of app. 45,000 euros.
Unlike Panosyan-Bouvet, Dati will remain in the government.
She’ll also keep on fighting for the post of the mayor of Paris. In that battle, she might have some luck as her main rival, current mayor Anne Hidalgo faces similar trouble: she was accused of lack of transparency when it came to luxury spending, dresses, jewels and travel expenses.
Dati denied all accusations, anyways, declaring that she had “nothing to correct” in her declaration of assets.
The reaction to the Renault-Nissan case from the Élysée Palace was tight lipped and short, acknowledging the facts but nothing else. The president has, supposedly, “taken note of the decision to refer Rachida Dati to the criminal court”, but “as a referral is not a conviction, she will continue to work”.
A 180-to Macron’s original commitment to pressure ministers under investigation to step down.
Macron is in a precarious situation.
He could, maybe, use the cases of both Panosyan-Bouvet and Dati to prove that the integration of migrants is actually possible (both ministers are descendants of immigrants) – the marvellous French invention of “liberté, égalité et fraternité” ensures that everybody can join the elite of the country in carving themselves a large piece of the cake. (He demanded that the French “build a society where everyone has the opportunity to thrive”, after all.)
Or he could use all these cases to prove that France is a democratic state, governed by the principles of the rule of law: thus, even the mightiest and most powerful can spend some time behind bars for their serious wrongdoings. Sorry, President Sarkozy.
Yet another option for him is to use corruption, well, all the exposed cases as scapegoats – diverting attention from the other problems of the country, which are as manyfold as the famous mille-feuille. From the dismal state of the economy to the aching gaps in the social security budget, demonstrators and political opponents only need to pick their favourite. Social tensions are soaring, just like public debt that hit a record 3.4 trillion euro this year.
Maybe if President Macron truly wants to be “responsive to the needs of citizens”, he should focus on his own country first before spending endless billions on his pet projects to prove himself on the world stage.