Alain Juppé (born August 15, 1945) is a French politician; among other positions, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997. In 2004 Juppé was convicted of mishandling public funds.
Early life
Alain Juppé was born in Mont-de-Marsan (Landes).
Education
Political career
Alain Juppé was a minister under Jacques Chirac's government in the 1980s, and was made Édouard Balladur's Foreign Minister in 1993. He succeeded him as Prime Minister in 1995, also becoming president of the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) political party. The RPR lost elections in 1997, and he was succeeded by Lionel Jospin.
Member of the National Assembly (as representative of Paris from 1986 to 1997, then representative of Gironde), he was elected Mayor of Bordeaux in 1995, succeeding former Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas.
Criminal conviction
In 2004, Alain Juppé was tried for the felony of abuse of public funds, when he was head of the RPR and the RPR illegally used personnel provided by the City of Paris for running its operations. He was convicted and sentenced to a 18-month suspended jail sentence, the deprivation of civic rights for five years, and the deprivation of the right to run for political office for 10 years. He appealed against the decision, whereby his disqualification from holding elected office was reduced to one year and the suspended sentence cut to 14 months. He announced he would not appeal the ruling before the Court of Cassation. (See Corruption scandals in the Paris region) As a consequence, Alain Juppé has resigned his mayorship of Bordeaux and his position of head of the Bordeaux urban community.
The court commented:
- It is regrettable that at the time when the legislative body became aware of the need to end criminal practices which existed for the financing of political parties, Mr Juppé did not apply to his own party the very rules that he had voted for in Parliament.
- It is equally regrettable that Mr Juppé, whose intellectual qualities are unanimously recognized, did not judge appropriate to assume before Justice his entire criminal responsibility and kept on denying established facts.
-
However, Mr Juppé has given himself for many years to the service of the State, while he did obtain no personal enrichment from these crimes he committed for the benefit of his political party, for which he should not be a scapegoat.[1]
Some commentators, such as Jean-Marc Ayrault , head of the National Assembly group of the Socialist Party, have argued that Juppé, in this judicial group, paid for a wider responsibility than his own.[2]
The long-term consequences of this sentence on Alain Juppé's career are yet unknown. Some law professors argue that the Versailles court could not legally exempt Juppé from a disposition of the Electoral Code (article L7) which bars any person sentenced for illegal taking of interests from being on an electoral roll for a period of 5 years, also preventing that person from running for office. Another disposition of the Electoral Code (article LO130) specifies that any person deprived of the right to be on an electoral roll for a certain period following a judicial sentence is deprived of the right of running for the French National Assembly for double that period, which would bar Juppé for 10 years. Should Juppé try to register again as a voter, other voters could sue in court to have his registration cancelled; also, should he be elected to national office, the Constitutional Council could cancel the election on grounds that Juppé was illegally registered as a voter. President Jacques Chirac could possibly use his right of pardon in favor of Juppé, but this would probably be politically disastrous. (Le Canard Enchaîné, December 22, 2004).
Alain Juppé has considered giving classes on public administration at a variety of prominent US and Quebec universities and colleges, including the UQÀM in Montreal, some of which were initially receptive to having a former prime minister be a member of their faculty. However, following Juppé's conviction, his appointment was considered inappropriate. (Le Canard Enchaîné, February 16, 2005)
- Alain Juppé - Prime Minister
-
Hervé de Charette - Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Charles Millon - Minister of Defense
-
Jean-Louis Debré - Minister of the Interior
-
Alain Madelin - Minister of Economy and Finance
-
Jacques Toubon - Minister of Justice
- Yves Galland - Minister of Industry
-
François Bayrou - Minister of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education, and Research
- Jacquet Barrot - Minister of Labour, Social Dialogue, and Participation
- Pierre Pasquini - Minister of Veterans and War Victims
-
Philippe Douste-Blazy - Minister of Culture
- Philippe Vasseur - Minister of Agriculture, Fish, and Food
- Corinne Lepage - Minister of Environment
- Jean-Jacques de Peretti - Minister of Overseas
- Bernard Pons - Minister of Transport, Regional Planning, and Equipment
- Roger Romani - Minister of Relations with Parliament
- Elisabeth Hubert - Minister of Public Health and Sickness Insurance
- Pierre-André Périssol - Minister of Housing
- François de Panafieu - Minister of Tourism
- François Fillon - Minister of Information Technologies and Post
- Jean Puech - Minister of Civil Service
-
Jean-Pierre Raffarin - Minister of Small and Medium-sized Companies, Commerce, and Craft Industry
- Claude Goasguen - Minister of Reform of the State, Decentralization, and Citizenship
- Colette Codaccioni - Minister of Solidarity between Generations
- Eric Raoult - Minister of Integration and Fight against Exclusion
- Jean Arthuis - Minister of Planning
Changes
-
25 August 1995 - Jean Arthuis succeeds Madelin as Minister of Economy and Finance, remaining also Minister of Planning.
- Alain Juppé - Prime Minister
-
Hervé de Charette - Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Charles Millon - Minister of Defense
-
Jean-Louis Debré - Minister of the Interior
- Jean Arthuis - Minister of Economy and Finance
-
Jacques Toubon - Minister of Justice
- Franck Borotra - Minister of Industry, Posts, and Telecommunications
-
François Bayrou - Minister of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education, and Research
-
Jacques Barrot - Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
-
Philippe Douste-Blazy - Minister of Culture
- Philippe Vasseur - Minister of Agriculture, Fish, and Food
-
Guy Drut - Minister of Youth and Sport
- Corinne Lepage - Minister of Environment
- Bernard Pons - Minister of Transport, Housing, Tourism, and Equipment
- Roger Romani - Minister of Relations with Parliament
- Dominique Perben - Minister of Civil Service, Reform of the State, and Decentralization
- Jean-Claude Gaudin - Minister of City and Regional Planning
-
Jean-Pierre Raffarin - Minister of Small and Medium-sized Companies, Commerce, and Craft Industry
|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
Jacques Chirac | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |President of Rally for the Republic
1994–1997 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Philippe Séguin
|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
Édouard Balladur | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |Prime Minister of France
1995–1997 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Lionel Jospin
|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
— | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |President of Union for a Popular Movement
2002–2004 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Nicolas Sarkozy
Last updated: 05-07-2005 02:19:15
Last updated: 05-07-2005 18:09:53
