Jacques Chirac's Trial Seen As Reflection of a Royal Sense of Entitlement

The heart of the claims against Chirac, 79, lies in a sense of political entitlement many French leaders have felt since long before mobs lopped off the heads of the elite, said anti- corruption activist Daniel Lebegue.

“Louis XIV said, ‘The state, it is me,’ and still today, many political leaders in France think their functions let them award privileges,” said Lebegue, president of Transparency International in France. Chirac “thought he was a sort of sovereign, a monarch. He had no checks on him.”

The last French head of state to face trial was Vichy leader Philippe Petain, who was convicted of treason. Chirac, who is among 10 defendants in the case including his former chiefs of staff and the grandson of the late president Charles de Gaulle, has denied the allegations he gave jobs to political supporters. The claims date back two decades to Chirac’s mayoral term. The case was put on hold because French law blocks investigation of a sitting head of state for anything less than high treason.

Public prosecutors in Paris and nearby Nanterre, where the matter was investigated, opposed a trial and the City of Paris dropped its claim after reaching a settlement. In that deal, the former president and the Union for a Popular Movement, successor to Chirac’s Rally for the Republic party, paid 2.2 million euros ($3 million) to the city. Neither admitted guilt.

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