This is a list of major

political scandal In politics, a political scandal is an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage. Politicians, government officials, party officials and lobbyists can be accused of various illegal, corrupt, uneth ...

s in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Until 1958

*1789: '' Réveillon riots'' - popular revolt from April 26- 28, in the

Faubourg Saint-Antoine The Faubourg Saint-Antoine was one of the traditional suburbs of Paris, France. It grew up to the east of the Bastille around the abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, and ran along the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Location The Faubourg Saint-An ...

, Paris. Considered a precursor to the

Storming of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille (french: Prise de la Bastille ) occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents stormed and seized control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille. At ...

and the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

. *1797:

XYZ Affair The XYZ Affair was a political and diplomatic episode in 1797 and 1798, early in the presidency of John Adams, involving a confrontation between the United States and Republican France that led to the Quasi-War. The name derives from the subst ...

- a political and diplomatic episode involving confrontation with the United States that led to the

Quasi-War The Quasi-War (french: Quasi-guerre) was an undeclared naval war fought from 1798 to 1800 between the United States and the French First Republic, primarily in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of the United States. The ability of Congress ...

. *1816: shipwreck of and search for the off the west coast of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

*1847: Teste- Cubières corruption scandal, revealed in May 1847 *1847: Charles de Choiseul-Praslin's suicide after having murdered his wife, daughter of Horace Sébastiani, minister of the

July Monarchy The July Monarchy (french: Monarchie de Juillet), officially the Kingdom of France (french: Royaume de France), was a liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 26 July 1830, with the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 23 F ...

*1880s:

Georges Ernest Boulanger Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger (29 April 1837 – 30 September 1891), nicknamed Général Revanche ("General Revenge"), was a French general and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the second decade of the Third Repub ...

affair *1887: Schnaebele incident *1887: Wilson scandal, which led to the resignation of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Jules Grévy François Judith Paul Grévy (15 August 1807 – 9 September 1891), known as Jules Grévy (), was a French lawyer and politician who served as President of France from 1879 to 1887. He was a leader of the Moderate Republicans, and given that hi ...

*1890s:

Panama scandals Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a List of transcontinental countries#North America and South America, transcontinental country spanning the Central America, southern ...

*1894:

Dreyfus affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

conviction of Alfred Dreyfus, exposed by writer

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

on 13 January 1898 *1928:

Marthe Hanau Marthe Hanau (1890 – 19 July 1935) was a Frenchwoman who successfully defrauded French financial markets in the 1920s and the 1930s. Early life Marthe Hanau was born in Lille to the family of a Jewish industrialist. She married and later di ...

affair *1930:

Albert Oustric Albert Oustric (2 September 1887 – 16 April 1971) was a French entrepreneur and banker. He was the son of a cafe proprietor, and held various jobs before managing to raise capital for a hydro power generation company. He founded a small bank in 1 ...

affair *1934: Stavisky Affair, embezzlement and political corruption *1949: the

Generals Affair The Generals' Affair (also known as Revers Report, ''Rapport Revers'') was a political-military scandal that happened under the French Fourth Republic during the First Indochina War. It lasted from September 1949 to November 1950. Revers Mission ...

, a political-military scandal during the

First Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vi ...

*1950: the

Henri Martin Affair The Henri Martin affair was a political-military scandal that occurred under the French Fourth Republic during the First Indochina War in the early 1950s. Henri Martin, a French communist ( PCF) activist, was arrested by the military police in 1950 ...

, a political-military scandal during the

*1958: the ballets roses, a scandal most notably involving then President of the Senate, André Le Troquer, in which a group of girls aged 15 to 17 performed "ballets" that ended in orgies

Under the Fifth Republic

*1965: the

Ben Barka affair use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = ...

, disappearance of the Moroccan opposition leader

Mehdi Ben Barka use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = ...

. *1968:

The Markovic affair ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

*1974: ** Eurodif affair **Cardinal

Jean Daniélou Jean-Guenolé-Marie Daniélou (; 14 May 1905 – 20 May 1974) was a French Jesuit and cardinal, an internationally well known patrologist, theologian and historian and a member of the Académie Française. Biography Early life and studies ...

's death in the house of a prostitute **''

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 ...

'' reveals the existence of the SAFARI

government database A government database collects information for various reasons, including climate monitoring, securities law compliance, geological surveys, patent applications and grants, surveillance, national security, border control, law enforcement, public hea ...

, prompting the creation of the CNIL agency in charge of respect of civil rights and

data privacy Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data pr ...

. *1979: **

Robert Boulin Robert Boulin (20 July 1920 – 30 October 1979) was a French politician who served as Minister of Labour in the French Cabinet and was at the centre of a major real-estate scandal that ended only with his death in mysterious circumstances. At t ...

affair; a minister of the third

Raymond Barre Raymond Octave Joseph Barre (; 12 April 192425 August 2007) was a French centre-right politician and economist. He was a Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs under three presidents (Rey, ...

government, Boulin was found dead in mysterious circumstances on 30 October 1979 ** Diamonds Affair involving Bokassa *1981: the '' Canard enchaîné'' uncovered the collaborationist role of former official

Maurice Papon Maurice Papon (; 3 September 1910 – 17 February 2007) was a French civil servant who led the police in major prefectures from the 1930s to the 1960s, before he became a Gaullist politician. When he was secretary general for the police in Bo ...

under

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its te ...

; the latter would eventually be convicted of crimes against humanity *1985:

sinking of the Rainbow Warrior The sinking of ''Rainbow Warrior'', codenamed Opération Satanique, was a bombing operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence agency, the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), carried out on 10 July 1985. D ...

by the French

DGSE The General Directorate for External Security (french: link=no, Direction générale de la Sécurité extérieure, DGSE) is France's foreign intelligence agency, equivalent to the British MI6 and the American CIA, established on 2 April 1982. ...

intelligence agency *1986: Chernobyl disaster, Jacques Chirac's government wrongly alleged that the "radioactive cloud" had stopped at the French borders *1987–1988:

Iskandar Safa Iskandar Safa (born April 1952) is a French businessman of Lebanese origin. Together with his brother Akram Safa, he is the owner of Privinvest Holding, a major international naval construction group. In addition to this, Iskandar Safa and his br ...

and the Hostage Scandal involving Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and Interior Minister Charles Pasqua *1980s: contaminated blood scandal *The '' Canard enchaîné'' satirical newspaper fought to bring to light evidence of alleged corruption during President Jacques Chirac's tenure as Mayor of Paris. *1990s: Angolagate (arms-for-oil scandal) ** ''La Fayette'' scandal *1994: Yann Piat affair; a former National Front MP, assassinated on 25 February 1994) *1994: Dauphiné News affair; Minister

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 In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower h ...

indicted, later sentenced to 29 months in prison *1998: affair

Elf An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...

- Dumas *1999: "Affair of the beach huts", leading to the arrest of prefect

Bernard Bonnet Bernard Bonnet (born 11 February 1948), French civil servant, is best known for being the first prefect since World War II to be convicted of an offense committed in the course of his duties, his role in the "Affair of the beach huts". Early ca ...

*2005: the revelations of the ''Canard enchaîné'' on Finance Minister

Hervé Gaymard Hervé Gaymard (born 31 May 1960) is a French politician and a member of The Republicans conservative party. He served as the country's Minister of Finances from 30 November 2004 until his resignation on 25 February 2005. Gaymard attended S ...

's ( UMP) lavish state-funded apartment led to his resignation in 2005 *2006:

Clearstream affair The Clearstream affair was a political scandal in France in the run-up to the 2007 presidential election. The name refers to the Luxembourg bank Clearstream Banking S.A, now wholly owned by Deutsche Börse, which was alleged to have aided many pr ...

allegedly involving Prime Minister

Dominique de Villepin Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (; born 14 November 1953) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007 under President Jacques Chirac. In his career working at the Ministry ...

(UMP) accused of attempting to discredit his political rivals, including UMP Leader Nicolas Sarkozy, by spreading false allegations concerning the Taiwan frigates scandal. * Since 2010 ** Bettencourt affair ** Karachi affair ** Sylvie Andrieux affair ** Alleged Libyan financing in the 2007 French presidential election ** Cahuzac affair ** 2012 UMP leadership election fraud accusations **

Thomas Thevenoud Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

affair **

Kader Arif Kader Arif ( ar, قادر عريف; born 3 July 1959 in Algiers) is a French politician of the French Socialist Party (PS) who served as Junior Minister for Veterans to the French Minister of Defence Jean-Yves Le Drian from 2012 until 2014. ...

affair **

Bruno Le Roux Bruno Le Roux (; born 2 May 1965) was the Minister of the Interior of France from 6 December 2016 to 21 March 2017. He was a member of the National Assembly of France where he represented the Seine-Saint-Denis department and was the leader of ...

affair ** Fillon affair ** Benalla affair **

Richard Ferrand Richard Ferrand (; born 1 July 1962) is a French politician of La République En Marche! (LREM) who served as President of the National Assembly from 2018 to 2022. He had served as a member of the National Assembly for Finistère's 6th const ...

affair

References

External links

The Bettencourt/L'Oréal scandal
Radio France Internationale in English
French politics no stranger to scandals
Radio France Internationale in English
L'Oréal, scandals and the far right
Radio France Internationale in English * Liste d'affaires politico-financières françaises List Of French Financial Political Scandals in French {{DEFAULTSORT:Political scandals in France

Scandals A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

Until 1958

Under the Fifth Republic

See also

References

External links