When I read John Lichfield’s analysis of the state of French politics in Politico, I didn’t know whether to be amused, shocked, or astonished. For example this:
The last two presidents from the center right, Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac, were both convicted of corruption after they left the Elysée. Five of the last six French center-right prime ministers have faced criminal charges of various kinds. Two, Edouard Balladur and Dominique de Villepin, were acquitted. Three, including Chirac, were found guilty.
Alain Juppé (prime minister from 1995-1997) was convicted in 2004 for helping Chirac to misappropriate Paris taxpayers’ cash to run their political party in the 1980s and 1990s. François Fillon (PM 2007-2012) was convicted last year of falsely claiming a parliamentary salary for his wife.
The wrongdoing is not confined to the center right (although their record suggests they have been more active, or careless, than other political families).
In the late 1980s, senior officials from the French Socialist Party were convicted of extorting money for party finances for public contracts. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s hard-left France Unbowed is under investigation for allegedly claiming money for “fake jobs†in the European Parliament.
The far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, likes to accuse other parties of being tous pourri (all rotten). Yet since 2017, she has been under formal investigation for the alleged embezzlement of €6.8 million in EU funds. Both Mélenchon and Le Pen dismiss the investigations as politically motivated.
That sounds like Illinois! Although the infractions he lists are mostly related to financing political campaigns while here in Illinois personal wealth and power are the underlying offenses.
So, corruption in Louisiana/New Orleans is from France, and I suspect a lot of people moved up the river to Chicago/Illinois. So, …
It Ain’t My Fault