
Of what amounts to limited coverage of what is a massive corruption scandal amongst the French political élite – going right to the very top - it is The Telegraph that covers it best, also linking to an earlier report in March, when we also covered l’affaire.
In all, 47 politicians, many of them close associates of Chirac, were defending corruption charges, with allegations that the group took nearly £50 million in kickbacks after awarding school building contracts in the central Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, between 1990 and 1995.

The main beneficiary of the kickbacks was, in fact, the RPR, the party L'Escroc founded in 1976 but, as president, he has immunity from prosecution. Predictably, he has denied knowledge of the illegal practices and has refused to give evidence on behalf of his former aides and colleagues, allowing them to be hung out to dry.
Another politician in the frame was Guy Drut, 54, an ex-sports minister who won an Olympic hurdles gold medal for France in 1976. He was given a 15-month suspended sentence and fined £35,000. Drut is a member of the International Olympic Committee but withdrew from Paris's failed attempt to host the 2012 Olympics to avoid embarrassing the bid. He was found guilty of taking a fictitious job at a construction firm.
Last week, another of Mr Chirac's former political supporters, Didier Schuller, 58, was jailed for five years, three of them suspended, in a separate case concerning the misuse of company assets. Schuller, who was freed pending an appeal, denied wrongdoing. It was, he claimed, like blaming a cabin steward for a plane crash, where the RPR was the airline, Chirac its president and former prime minister Juppé the pilot.
And this "president", we must constantly remind ourselves, is – through the wonders of our membership of the European Union and his membership of the European Council, a de facto member of our government.
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