Legal experts boost Chirac immunity

Chirac is accused of spending public cash on private trips

French President Jacques Chirac is to remain immune from prosecution for his alleged role in party-funding scandals for as long as he is in office, a judicial commission has recommended.

However, legal proceedings could resume once he stands down, say the 12 experts picked by President Chirac himself.

The commission was cherry-picked by the Elysee palace and now it's decided to give Chirac a shield of reinforced concrete

Arnaud Montebourg
Socialist deputy

Their report recommends that sitting presidents should neither be prosecuted nor investigated by a French or foreign court.

The report is the result of an election pledge made by Mr Chirac to clarify the president's legal status after his first term was marred by successive investigations into corruption allegations at Paris town hall.

The recommendations effectively endorse of Mr Chirac's refusal to answer summonses to give evidence last year.

Mr Chirac's supporters in the ruling centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party welcomed what they said was a common-sense decision reflecting a president's symbolic status as the head of state.

But opposition Socialists described the report as a whitewash.

"The commission was cherry-picked by the Elysee palace and now it's decided to give Chirac a shield of reinforced concrete," said Arnaud Montebourg, a Socialist deputy who last year led unsuccessful attempts to have the president impeached by parliament.

Third term protection

The so-called Avril commission also recommended a procedure for unseating a president "in the event of breaches of duty clearly incompatible with the exercise of his office".

This would involve a complicated process leading to the two houses of parliament being summoned to sit together as a court.

However, the report said: "Because the immunity is intended to protect the office and not its holder, it must be absolute as long as the mandate lasts, but it must also end with the mandate, when the [president] becomes an equal before the law."

This means that if he leaves the presidency in 2007, Mr Chirac could still face prosecution - unless he seeks a third presidential term.

Mr Chirac, who was re-elected to the presidency in May, was mayor of Paris from 1997 to 1995, during which time it is alleged he knew of secret arrangements to fund his Rally for the Republic (RPR) party via backhanders from building companies or via the creation of non-existent municipal posts.

In a separate allegation, he is also said to have financed family holidays using secret government funds.