US embassy cable - 05PARIS490

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 000490 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT ALSO FOR EUR/WE, DRL/IL AND INR/EUC 
DEPT OF LABOR FOR ILAB 
DEPT OF COMMERCE FOR ITA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2009 
TAGS: PGOV, SOCI, FR 
SUBJECT: IMMUNITY FOR CHIRAC:TRIAL BALLOON OR OVER-ZEALOUS 
INITIATIVE? 
 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL MINISTER COUNSELOR JOSIAH ROSENBLATT FOR REASO 
 
NS 1.4 B AND D 
 
SUMMARY 
-------- 
1.  (C) A coterie of Chirac supporters wasted no time last 
week in shooting down a proposal to accord former presidents 
senator-for-life status.  The initiative was widely seen as 
an effort to protect Chirac from party funding charges once 
he leaves office by extending him the immunity from 
prosecution that would go with senator-for-life status. 
Noting the potential embarrassment in what looked like a 
blatant attempt to manipulate the system, Chirac loyalists 
disavowed the initiative, whose author, an obscure UMP 
Senator, claims it was all his own idea.  Whatever the truth, 
the proposal -- which would have required a Constitutional 
amendment -- is going nowhere.  Bernard Accoyer, President of 
the UMP group in the National Assembly, told us on January 
19, that Chirac was "too defiant" to be attracted by such a 
possibility.  END SUMMARY. 
 
CHIRAC SPOKESPERSONS REJECT PROPOSAL 
----------------------------------- 
2.  (SBU) When Patrice Gelard, UMP Senator from the 
Department of Seine-Maritime, proposed last week to amend the 
French Constitution to afford former French presidents 
senator-for-life status, Chirac loyalists wasted no time 
publicly distancing the Elysee from the initiative.  The 
parliamentary immunity from prosecution that would come with 
Senate membership would afford some protection from 
prosecution to President Chirac once his presidential 
immunity ends.  Chirac is implicated in a number of 
investigations by magistrates into corruption related to 
party financing while Chirac was mayor of Paris.  A number of 
legislative leaders, known as strong supporters of the 
president and understood to be carrying his message, quickly 
poured cold water on Gelard's proposal.  For example, 
Josselin de Rohan, President of the UMP group in the Senate, 
pointed out in a statement to the press that in 1886 France 
abolished Senators for life and that it would be a mistake to 
consider reviving the status.  He also added that the 
proposal would not generate the support required even to 
approach successful passage of a constitutional amendment. 
 
CHIRAC TOO "DEFIANT" TO LIKE PROPOSAL 
------------------------------------- 
3.  (C) In a meeting with PolOff on January 19, Bernard 
Accoyer, President of the UMP group in the National Assembly, 
remarked that Chirac "was a fighter," and that "it would not 
be like him" to warm to such a tailor-made immunity deal. 
According to Accoyer, Chirac is too "defiant" to be attracted 
to such a "pathetic" immunity status. 
 
 
GELARD'S CLAIMS 
--------------- 
4.  (SBU) According to Gelard, his proposal had nothing to do 
with Chirac, but rather, was aimed at ending the practice of 
making past presidents members of the Constitutional Council, 
an office Gelard claims former president Valery Giscard 
d'Estaing is abusing.  Gelard, Vice Chairman of the French 
Senate's Law Committee and a professor of Constitutional law, 
claims that Giscard's partisan lobbying for the proposed EU 
Constitution and against Turkey's accession to the EU, are 
not consistent with the impartiality required of members of 
the Constitutional council.  Hence -- according to Gelard -- 
his efforts "to resolve once and for all the status of former 
presidents" by amending the Constitution to provide Senator 
for life status for them. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
5.  (C)  Accoyer's assessment that Chirac rather resents such 
an immunity deal tracks with Chirac's own defiant, public 
defense of the integrity of Alain Juppe.  After Juppe's 
conviction on corruption charges in January 2004 Chirac, with 
uncharacteristic emotion, publicly defended Juppe, calling 
him a true statesman and implied that he felt Juppe had been 
wrongly dishonored by the conviction.  Finding a way to 
protect Chirac from judicial investigation, possibly leading 
to charges, should he leave office remains a problem Chirac, 
his advisors, and his allies in the Parliament will continue 
to grapple with.  Gelard's short-lived proposal seems to have 
been largely Gelard's own idea, though Chirac's supporters 
were clearly carefully watching legislative and public 
reaction to it.  Chirac and his allies clearly preferred to 
avoid the long road to Constitutional amendment on an issue 
that would be such a lightening rod for controversy.  END 
COMMENT. 
Leach