The "Balladur jurisprudence," named after former
French Prime Minister
The prime minister of France (french: link=no, Premier ministre français), officially the prime minister of the French Republic, is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of the Council of Ministers.
The prime minister i ...
Edouard Balladur, is an unwritten rule according to which a member of the
French government
The Government of France ( French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who ...
who has been indicted in a judicial affair should resign from his functions. It is misnamed, as it was in fact the
Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
Prime Minister
Pierre Bérégovoy
Pierre Eugène Bérégovoy (; 23 December 1925 – 1 May 1993) was a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France under President François Mitterrand from 2 April 1992 to 29 March 1993. He was a member of the Socialist Party and M ...
who imposed this for the first time by forcing
Bernard Tapie
Bernard Roger Tapie (; 26 January 1943 – 3 October 2021) was a French businessman, politician and occasional actor, singer, and TV host. He was Minister of City Affairs in the government of Pierre Bérégovoy.
Life and career
Tapie was bor ...
, then Minister of the City, to resign in May 1992.
[La mise en examen de M. Santini n'a pas empêché sa nomination au gouvernement]
''Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'', 22 June 2007
The Balladur cabinet
Various governmental personalities were forced by Balladur to resign after being indicted by the French justice, mostly for
corruption
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
affairs. Those included
Alain Carignon
Alain Carignon (born 23 February 1949 in Vizille (Isère), is a conservative French politician. From 1986 to 1995, he was deputy to the National Assembly, before becoming a junior minister in charge of environmental issues in the second Chira ...
, who resigned in July 1994 and was sentenced to five years of prison in 1996;
Michel Roussin Michel Roussin (born May 3, 1939 in Rabat, Morocco) was the chief of staff of Alexandre de Marenches, who directed the SDECE French secret service until the May 1981 election of François Mitterrand as President of France. Michel Roussin has also b ...
, indicted in the frame of the
corruption scandals in the Paris region
In the 1980s and 1990s there were, in the Paris region (Île-de-France), multiple instances of alleged and proved political corruption cases, as well as cases of abuse of public money and resources. Almost all involved were members of the conserva ...
(condemned in 2005 to four years of prison on
probation
Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration.
In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...
);
Gérard Longuet
Gérard Longuet (; born 24 February 1946 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French conservative politician who has served as a member of the Senate from 2001 to 2011 and again since 2012, representing Meuse. He served as Minister of ...
, indicted in the same scandals as Michel Roussin (and acquitted in 2005) and for a minor affair concerning the building of his villa in
Saint-Tropez
, INSEE = 83119
, postal code = 83990
, image coat of arms = Blason ville fr Saint-Tropez-A (Var).svg
, image flag=Flag of Saint-Tropez.svg
Saint-Tropez (; oc, Sant Tropetz, ; ) is a commune in the Var department and the region of Provence-Al ...
(acquitted in 1998).
The Jospin cabinet
In November 1999,
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn (; born 25 April 1949), also known as DSK, is a French economist and politician who served as the tenth managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and was a member of the French Socialist P ...
resigned from his functions in
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.
Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...
's
Plural Left
The Gauche Plurielle (French for ''Plural Left'') was a left-wing coalition in France, composed of the Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste'' or PS), the French Communist Party (''Parti communiste français'' or PCF), the Greens, the Left Radi ...
cabinet, in agreement with the "Balladur jurisprudence." He was later acquitted of all charges
La loi et la «jurisprudence»
''L'Express
''L'Express'' () is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''Réussir''.
History ...
'', 15 November 2001
The Fillon cabinet
After the June 2007 legislative election, Prime Minister François Fillon
François Charles Armand Fillon (; born 4 March 1954) is a retired French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. He was the nominee of the Republicans (previously known as the Union ...
broke for the first time with this informal rule by appointing André Santini
André Santini (; born 20 October 1940) is a French politician and current mayor of Issy-les-Moulineaux, Hauts-de-Seine.
A former member of the UDF, he did not support François Bayrou, the candidate of his party for the first round of the ...
, indicted in the ''Fondation Hamon'' affair on charges of corruption, Secretary of State.[
]
References
{{reflist
See also
*French political scandals
This is a list of major political scandals in France.
Until 1958
*1789: ''Réveillon riots'' - popular revolt from April 26- 28, in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, Paris. Considered a precursor to the Storming of the Bastille and the French Revoluti ...
*Politics of France
The politics of France take place with the framework of a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic". ...
Politics of France