International
Scam accused comes back to haunt Chirac
By Vaiju Naravane
Paris
Feb. 7.
Less than three months before the April 21 Presidential elections in France, the return of one of the main accused in a financial scandal involving the President, Jacques Chirac, during his term as Paris Mayor in the 80s and early 90s, has electrified what has been a morose electoral campaign.
Didier Schuller, 54, a former elected politician from a Paris suburb fled France in 1995 after investigators zeroed in on him as one of the prime suspects in a huge network of kickbacks involving Paris City Hall. The kickbacks were allegedly funnelled to the coffers of Mr. Chirac's political Party, the RPR, or Rally for the Republic. Large chunks of the money were reportedly diverted to politicians' personal pockets as well.
Mr. Schuller's son divulged the whereabouts of his father to the police last week and France called for the politician's extradition. Mr. Schuller, who arrived in France under police escort on Tuesday, could severely damage the President, whose popularity has fallen this past week. He has talked about Mr. Chirac's political machine with well-oiled systems of kickbacks for party funding and personal enrichment.
Mr Chirac's allies have denounced what they suspect is political manoeuvring to damage the President's reputation less than three months before the poll. The Socialist party has denied engineering Mr. Schuller's return. Mr. Chirac has systematically refused to answer summons from anti-corruption judges investigating scandals pertaining to the time he served as Paris Mayor from 1977 to 1995, the year he was elected President of France. Paris City Hall has an annual budget of over 10 billion euros, more than several African States.
Meanwhile, another judge looking into the Socialist Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin's purchase of a holiday home has cleared him of any wrong doing. Mr. Jospin enjoys a spotless reputation of personal probity. His former Finance Minister, Dominique Strauss Kahn, was also cleared recently.
Neither Mr. Chirac nor Mr. Jospin have officially announced their candidatures but it is a foregone conclusion that they will face each other in the second round run-off scheduled for early May. Opinion polls show that Mr. Chirac's popularity has slipped in recent weeks and the two leaders are now running neck and neck.
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