The council voted by 147 to 13 with one abstention to accept the payment to cover costs in return for dropping its civil suit, although Chirac's corruption trial will still go ahead later this year or in 2011.
Chirac, 77, is facing trial on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust stemming from the scandal dating back to his 1977-1995 tenure as Paris mayor. The case marks the first time that a former leader of modern France has been forced to stand trial. The deal doesn't close the case, but it will remove the last plaintiff other than the state, and could take some of the courtroom pressure off Chirac when he goes to trial in late 2010 or early 2011.
The Paris city council voted 147 to 13 with one abstention to drop the city's complaint against Chirac after he and his conservative Union for a Popular Movement agreed to compensate the city's losses at the time. The 2.2 million euros payback amounts to the salaries of 21 people hired by City Hall in what investigators have called a “fake jobs” scheme while he was mayor. The jobs were allegedly meant to help finance his conservative party, the Rally for the Republic, which was later replaced by the Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP.
“This agreement is good for the city of Paris, good for Mr. Chirac, and good on every level,” Chirac's lawyer, Jean Veil, said. The city had been a civil party to the state's case against Chirac. If convicted, the former president could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined 150,000 euros ($200,000). Many observers say a prison term is highly unlikely.
A Paris court on Oct. 1 will set a trial date, likely in November or February. Chirac has denied wrongdoing and has argued that France long had no judicial rules laying out a framework for party financing. He's also noted that the government passed several laws from 1988 to 1995 as it tried to clarify the rules. Veil said the former president would pay 500,000 euros in the deal, while the party will pay the rest. Chirac had to take out a bank loan to pay his share, he said.
Bertrand Delanoe, a Socialist who is the current Paris mayor, insisted that there was no back-room negotiation with the UMP over the Chirac deal, and that party allegiances weren't an issue in the case. “When it comes to matters of morals, ethics and justice, you must have principles, and that's what's happening when it comes to these reparations,” Delanoe told reporters after the vote.
While Chirac was president from 1995 to 2007, investigating judges went after him in corruption scandals -- but he used his presidential immunity to keep them at arm's length. After he left office, the dockets were reopened. Two months after leaving the presidency, Chirac was questioned in an investigation of the case. An investigator turned up a 1993 letter in which Chirac had requested a raise for a secretary who was paid by City Hall, but who actually worked at party headquarters. Chirac now devotes much of his time to a charitable organization, La Fondation Chirac.
