François Hollande
François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle from ...
from 2012 to 2013. A former member of the
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...
(PS), he previously was the member of the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
Lot-et-Garonne
Lot-et-Garonne (, oc, Òlt e Garona) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the rivers Lot and Garonne, it had a population of 331,271 in 2019. He resigned from his ministership and was expelled from his party amidst the
Cahuzac affair
On 19 March 2013 Jérôme Cahuzac resigned as a minister in charge of fighting against tax fraud due to tax fraud allegations. He later admitted that he had held a secret foreign bank account for about 20 years. As a consequence, he was officiall ...
, in which he was accused and subsequently convicted of tax fraud.
Early political career
A native of
Talence
Talence (, ; oc, Talança, ; ca, Talença, ) is a commune in the Gironde department, administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.
It is the third-largest suburb of the city of Bordeaux, and is adjacent to it on the south side. It is ...
, a suburb of
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
, Cahuzac was elected as the member of the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
Lot-et-Garonne
Lot-et-Garonne (, oc, Òlt e Garona) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the rivers Lot and Garonne, it had a population of 331,271 in 2019.1997 legislative election, but lost his
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
reelection bid to UMP candidate Alain Merly. He stood again for the seat in
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
and defeated UMP candidate and former celebrity prosecutor
Jean-Louis Bruguière
Jean-Louis Bruguière (born 29 May 1943) was the leading French investigating magistrate in charge of counter-terrorism affairs. He was appointed in 2004 vice-president of the Paris Court of Serious Claims (''Tribunal de Grande Instance''). He ...
. He was reelected in
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
of
Villeneuve-sur-Lot
Villeneuve-sur-Lot (; in the Languedocien dialect of Occitan language: ''Vilanuèva d'Òlt'' ) is a town and commune in the southwestern French department of Lot-et-Garonne. The commune was formerly named ''Villeneuve-d'Agen''.
Villeneuve-sur-Lot ...
, a position he resigned upon his appointment as a government minister.
In the Socialist Party's 2011 primaries, Cahuzac endorsed
François Hollande
François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle from ...
as the party's candidate for the
2012 presidential election
This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*3–4 January: E ...
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
of Prime Minister
Jean-Marc Ayrault
Jean-Marc Ayrault (; born 25 January 1950) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2012 to 31 March 2014. He later was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017. He previously was Mayor of Nantes from 1989 t ...
.
He resigned as the minister in charge of fighting against tax fraud on 19 March 2013 due to
tax fraud
Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...
allegations but maintained he was innocent. On 2 April 2013 he admitted on his blog that he had held a secret foreign bank account for about 20 years. As a consequence, he was officially excluded as a member of the Socialist Party on 9 April 2013.
On 3 April 2016, the
Panama Papers
The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...
leak confirmed former allegations adding details, that Cahuzac owned a Seychelles company named Cerman Group Limited, incorporated in 2009, whose director and shareholder were from other offshore companies. When French authorities were investigating allegations of tax fraud in 2013, and Seychelles authorities questioned
Mossack Fonseca
Mossack Fonseca & Co. () was a Panamanian law firm and Corporate services, corporate service provider.politically exposed person
In financial regulation, a politically exposed person (PEP) is one who has been entrusted with a prominent public function. A PEP generally presents a higher risk for potential involvement in bribery and corruption by virtue of their position and ...
; Cerman Group Limited was dissolved in January 2015.
Cahuzac was sentenced to three years in prison and five years of ineligibility on 8 December 2016. He appealed on points of law. In May 2018, the
Court of Appeal of Paris
The Court of Appeal of Paris (french: Cour d'appel de Paris) is the largest appeals court in France in terms of the number of cases brought before it. Its jurisdiction covers the departments of Paris, Essonne, Yonne, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint- ...