Dismissal of Éric Dupond-Moretti before the Court of Justice, accusation of the general secretary of the Elysee, Alexis Kohler, the closest collaborator of Emmanuel Macron… If the President of the Republic keeps them in office, the tacit rule in force since 1992 under the government of Pierre Bérégovoyest to request the resignation of a minister or collaborator accused – or likely to be – after the opening of a judicial investigation.
BFMTV.com reminds these ministers implicated by the justice that they have often had to leave their post, with fluctuations following the tenant of the Elysee.
• Bérégovoy, Balladur, Jospin force their ministers to resign
bernard tapie
If nothing legally compels an accused minister to resign, Bernard Tapie is the first to have to comply with custom when Pierre Bérégovoy is Prime Minister. The then Minister of the City, the businessman is attacked by his former partner Georges Tranchant for “misuse of social assets” in a distribution company of the Toshiba brand. A few days before his indictment, he resigned his post in May 1992, at Matignon’s request. After obtaining an impeachment, he rejoined the government a few months later.
Gerard Longuet
When Édouard Balladur arrived at Matignon, he followed in the footsteps of his predecessor. When the Minister of Industry, Gérard Longuet was prosecuted for “cover-up of credit abuse”, resigned in October 1994. He was finally released in 1998.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Lionel Jospin continues to apply this measure with Dominique Strauss-Kahn, which he even anticipates being questioned by the courts. Then Minister of Economy, this pillar of the government resigned in November 1999, involved in several cases, including in particular that of the MNEF, a student mutual fund. Indicted a month later, DSK was finally released in November 2001.
• Under Chirac and Sarkozy, ministers appointed and already prosecuted
Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres
The deal changes under Jean-Pierre Raffarin, during the second five-year term of Jacques Chirac, who does not hesitate to promote elected officials challenged by justice. Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres is appointed for a few weeks to European Affairs when he is already charged with money laundering and violation of the legislation on the financing of political parties. Sentenced in February 2004, he was appointed a month later to the Ministry of Culture.
Andre Santini
Nicolas Sarkozy continues to take the turn started by the right. Andre Santini, Already charged with embezzlement of public funds, forgery of documents and illegal deduction of interest, he was appointed Secretary of State for Public Administration in June 2007. He was finally released in 2015.
Brice Hortefeux
Brice Hortefeux is for his part kept in office, once sentenced. Charged in 2009 with racial slurs and attacks on the presumption of innocence and later convicted, he remained Minister of Immigration and Labor during the time of his investigation, before becoming Home Secretary. He was finally released on second instance in 2011.
Eric Woerth
The only exception: Eric Woerth. In the summer of 2010, the Ministry of Labor was implicated in the Bettencourt case and the Chantilly racecourse case. He claims he hasn’t “considered resigning at all”. However, a few months later, during a reshuffle, he left the government before being indicted in 2012. The Oise’s elected official will benefit from an impeachment and then a full release in the following years.
• Under Hollande, return to the resignation of ministers
The election of François Hollande marks the return of the Bérégovoy jurisprudence, with a sometimes slow pace.
Jerome Cahuzac
This is the most emblematic case. In December 2012, Mediapart claimed that Budget Minister Jérôme Cahuzac, in charge of combating tax evasion, had an undeclared account in Switzerland. The Bercy tenant has been defending himself for weeks and affirms before the deputies, the ministers and even the President of the Republic that he has nothing to reproach himself with.
But the opening of a judicial investigation changed the situation in March 2013. François Hollande then demanded the resignation of Jérôme Cahuzac. In particular, he was sentenced to 2 years in prison and 2 years suspended. Benefited from a sentence adjustment, the one who became a doctor was never imprisoned.
Aquilino Belladonna
One of François Hollande’s closest advisers, Aquilino Morelle, was implicated in April 2014. Mediapart claims that the senior official would have advised pharmaceutical laboratories while working at Igas, a public body that controls, in particular, industry practices. More anecdotal but very symbolic, the media outlet also assures that this close friend of the president would have had a salon of the Republic privatized to have his shoes shined.
In response, the National Prosecutor’s Office decided to open a preliminary investigation. Aquilino Morelle was then forced out of the presidency by François Hollande. A year later, the case is dismissed.
Thomas Thevenoud
A few months later, Matignon announced the resignation of the Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Thomas Thévenoud., just ten days after his arrival in government “as a result of a situation discovered after his appointment”. The minister then acknowledges “delays” in paying his taxes, before the press reveals that he had not paid his bill to the Treasury for years. Thomas Thevenoud is definitively convicted of tax evasion in 2019.
Kader Arif
Last case of the five-year period François Hollande, Kader Arif, the Secretary of State in charge of Veterans, a close friend of the president. Affected by the opening of a preliminary investigation into public contracts awarded to relatives in September 2014, he remained in his position until his home was searched two months later. The Elysee then asked him to resign. His trial will take place in the coming weeks.
• Under Macron, variable principles
“In principle, a minister must leave the government when he is accused,” he had affirmed who was then a candidate on France 2 during the presidential campaign. In fact, Emmanuel Macron did not necessarily apply this rule.
richard ferrand
In early May 2017, the chained duck reveals that Mutuelles de Bretagne, headed by richard ferrand he would have received public money, not preventing him from being appointed to the government at the end of May. Mediapart also assures a few weeks later that he would also have favored his partner, allowing him to acquire real estate.
If justice does not immediately seize the case, Richard Ferrand is exfiltrated to the presidency of the La République en Marche group before being elected to the Perchoir. He was charged in 2019 while he was at the head of the National Assembly. The facts were judged prescribed by justice. Apprehended, the Court of Cassation must announce on October 5 its decision on the prescription of the facts.
Francois Bayrou, Sylvie Goulard, Marielle de Sarnez
Modern elected officials do not benefit from Emmanuel Macron’s leniency. Just appointed to the government, the head of the Modem and Minister of Justice François Bayrou and two of his relatives -Sylvie Goulard (Minister of Defense) and Marielle de Sarnez, (Minister of European Affairs)- are implicated in the case of the parliamentary assistants. in the European Parliament.
Five weeks later, the day after the legislative elections, they resign. The centrist elected officials will be indicted two years later for “complicity in embezzlement of public funds”. The instruction is closed since last March. The final decision on whether to hold a trial rests with the investigating judge hearing the case.
Alain Griset
Former SME minister Alain Griset also benefited from some flexibility. Three months after his appointment in the summer of 2020, the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life sends the prosecutor a report for possible breach of trust.
In February 2021, two investigations were opened for breach of trust and the minister’s private accommodation in Bercy was searched. Kept in his position, he finally tendered his resignation last December, the day of his suspended sentence of six months in prison and a three-year suspended sentence of disqualification.
Eric Dupond-Moretti
Éric Dupond-Moretti, who also came to government in the summer of 2020, was charged in July 2021 with illegally taking interest. The Keeper of the Seals is accused of taking advantage of his position to settle accounts with magistrates with whom he had problems when he was a lawyer, which he denies. Emmanuel Macron repeatedly reaffirms his trust in him, seeing in “justice, an institution, not a power”.
The minister was sent back to the Republic Court of Justice on Monday, a first for a serving minister. “Elisabeth Borne reaffirmed all the confidence she had in me yesterday,” he advanced to the BFMTV microphone on Tuesday, without failing to affirm that the “file” of the instruction was “empty.”
alexis kohl
Alexis Kohler, the secretary general of the Elysée has also was charged on Monday. It comes as a result of a complaint from the Anticor association in 2018, for links between Alexis Kohler and the Italian-Swiss shipowner MSC. The objective of this case is the family and professional ties of Alexis Kohler with this company founded and directed by his mother’s cousins. In a press release, Alexis Kohler’s attorneys write that he “strongly denies any wrongdoing.” His resignation is not currently on the agenda, the presidency said.
Source: BFM TV
