The indictment is “no longer a sufficient reason not to exercise public functions”, deplores socialist Laurence Rossignol

Putting Nicolas Sarkozy under an electronic bracelet is “likely to reconcile the French with justice”, believes the former minister. But she considers Emmanuel Macron’s decisions towards his former Minister of Justice and new Prime Minister, François Bayrou, to be inconsistent.

“Indictments are no longer a sufficient reason not to hold public office,” deplores Thursday December 19 on franceinfo Laurence Rossignol, former socialist minister of women’s rights. The senator is targeting in particular the new Prime Minister, François Bayrou. The mayor of Pau was acquitted in the case of the MoDem parliamentary assistants, for lack of evidence, but the prosecution appealed the conviction.

“It is still curious that he was forced to leave his first post as Minister of Justice in 2017 because he was indicted in this affair and now, where he will be tried again because there is an appeal from the prosecution on his non-conviction, that he can be Prime Minister”, asks Laurence Rossignol. “It reveals a lack of consistency on the part of the President of the Republic,” she adds.

The socialist senator notes that the Prime Minister is not the only one in this situation: “I believe that Rachida Dati is also indicted, no? If there is a decline, it is probably there, in the fact that the indictments are no longer a sufficient reason” pour “not to hold public office”she emphasizes. The resigning Minister of Culture was indicted for passive corruption and passive influence peddling by a person vested with a public elective mandate.

Laurence Rossignol also commented on the conviction of Nicolas Sarkozy. The Court of Cassation on Wednesday rejected the appeal of the former President of the Republic in the Bismuth affair, confirming his sentence to three years’ imprisonment, including one year in prison under an electronic bracelet. “I still have serious doubts about the probity and morality of this man. So, that he was convicted, I think that it is likely to reconcile the French with justice. That means that men politicians are also condemned when they are guilty, and that is quite reassuring”, reacts the senator.

According to her, the criminal proceedings against politicians are rather comforting: “Was justice less independent than today? ? That’s what I tend to think. I’m not sure that politicians (…) are more immoral than they were 50 years ago. In any case, justice is more independent, undeniably.” she said.