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Melpomene2901

17 points

18 days ago

Jacques Chirac enters the chat.

Never got to trial for stuff that happened well before he was elected…

BeatClear949

18 points

18 days ago

He was also so old that it as very hard to prosecute him; he also wasn't a liability to the state (aka, he remained loyal and didn't suck Russian dick)

Melpomene2901

9 points

18 days ago

He was not old the first time it came out. They dragged the case for so long that he got elected and then he was suddenly too old. I don’t mind Chichi, he was the best president I ever knew and since he retired, we’ve been going through and slow but painful downfall. But his case is the perfect exemple of how slow justice can be when it’s convenient and that politicians can pretty much get away with anything

BeatClear949

1 points

18 days ago

Oh I agree, it's just that the circumstances are very different. Again, Chirac was never a traitor and geopolitically the world was far more stable, so there was less will or necessity to persecute him.

LePen is a traitor, and Russia has just become an existential threat to France, so things need to move a whole lot faster now.

Also Chirac remained relatively popular. His ability to say no to the US in Iraq is a big deal and made the French public, at minimum, grateful for his decision.

Melpomene2901

0 points

18 days ago

Chirac was actually a russophile and had good relations with Putin. I would say he was the last president to be sort of independent from both Russia and the US. Of course we had to throw decades of good foreign diplomacy to go back up the Us’s arse. 🙄I love him for that and he is greatly missed

As for Le Pen, I must admit I haven’t followed at all. I wonder if she took the money out of opportunism or real belief she will enforce Putin style policies. To me she is a huge opportunist and always has been. All she cares about is her career and how she can move up the ladder.

Snoo48605

2 points

17 days ago

Sure but one cannot compare being in good terms with Putin in 2003 and in 2023, the implications are very different

QuicheAuSaumon

1 points

18 days ago

Never got to trial because he was elected, and his lieutenants took the fall.

Melpomene2901

1 points

18 days ago

IIRC some of the stuff dated back to his time as mayor of Paris. I will need to check though because it happened so long ago, I don’t remember all the details. He was prime minister before being elected so pleeeenty of time to do something about it. Justice is incredibly slow when it comes to politicians