Jacques Chirac

When Jacques Chirac stood against Le Pen in the presidential election of 2002, the slogan which sticks in my mind was "Vote for the Crook not the Nazi". The BBC showed voters who ritually disinfected themselves after voting for Chirac. Hardly a ringing endorsement.

The slogan was in fact prescient because in 2011, he became the first former president to be convicted of corruption following embezzlement charges in a party funding scandal when he was mayor of Paris.The courts were exceptionally lenient, letting him off with a token suspended sentence. This contrasts with the detention of the "sans papiers" who faced time in jail when they had not committed a crime.

France is no stranger to corrupt politicians but Chirac managed to stand out as a hideous example.



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