On more than 450 pages (with numerous photos and documents) Robert Bourgi will detail his “fundraising” with African presidents.
He will dissect the functioning of this “gift”, the sectors, the modus operandi, the repercussions of this generosity while also highlighting the financial gluttony of Jacques Chirac, the appetites of some of his ministers and the refusal of Nicolas Sarkozy to play in this game. “From 2005, Nicolas Sarkozy clearly positioned himself by refusing money from African presidents. He wanted to radically turn the page.”he explains.
“African briefcases”: the investigation into Bourgi’s accusations dismissed
In this work, we discover the journey of this future law graduate, son of a Lebanese Shiite who landed in Africa, who will quickly be brought into contact with money and politics. His father, a successful merchant, did not hesitate to put his hand into his wallet to help his political friends. He also does not hesitate to call on members of his community. Admiration for Charles de Gaul is at the center of this journey, as is the meeting with the Mr. Africa of Gaullism, Jacques Foccart, the man who personally knew all the African political personnel. Robert Bourgi will quickly establish himself in this small, cozy world. His interpersonal skills, his banter, his knowledge of the actors will naturally bring him closer to Jacques Foccart. These two, associated with Jacques Chirac, will ensure the financing of the RPR by collecting millions of dollars from African heads of state.
King Bongo
Among these African presidents, the most generous is undoubtedly Omar Bongo, the Gabonese president with whom Robert Bourgi maintained an almost filial relationship. “His generosity was universal”he explains. “He always distributed this cash in Krafts envelopes. […] He obviously knew who he was going to receive and therefore composed the amount accordingly. Bongo never touched money. He planned and had the sum prepared. […] Whatever the status (of the passing guest), it never went below 50 million CFA francs, roughly 80,000 euros.”
During the French legislative or presidential campaigns, Bourgi toured African capitals: Libreville, Brazzaville, Dakar, Cotonou, Ouagadougou… filled the RPR’s kitty. Each time several million euros landed clandestinely in France, from Paris town hall to the Élysée via Matignon.
The anecdotes are sometimes colorful, like these bundles hidden in djembes or that of the marabout sent by Omar Bongo to Jacques Chirac who “believed as hard as iron”relates Bourgi who continues “it must have been early April 1995” a few days before the first round of the victorious presidential election. The lobbyist explains his Parisian stroll to the Paris town hall in the middle of the night, flanked by Jacques Chirac’s personal driver and the famous marabout who will announce the good news to the mayor of Paris. “He looked at Jacques Chirac and let him know that if he had been predicted a defeat in 1988, this time he guaranteed him victory.”
We also discover the parallel diplomacy that takes place in Françafrique. The power that Bongo, who knew the mysteries of French political and diplomatic life like the back of his hand, could draw from his largesse, such as that of whispering the names of future French ambassadors to Africa. Better, like this list of ministerial candidates sent to Jacques Chirac (two letterhead sheets reproduced in the appendices of the book). A casting which hardly differs from the team written down on paper by the President of the French Republic.
Saving Mobutu
The book, in the form of a long interview, is full of new information, real scoops. Like this episode from 1997 where after an interview between Jacques Foccart and Mobutu, the former proposed to President Chirac the sending “a thousand men from the DGSE Action Service for the benefit of the regular Zairian army” to counter the advance of Laurent-Désiré Kabila supported by English-speaking Rwandans and Ugandans. Chirac does not decide and calls in his Prime Minister Alain Juppé. This one “did not like Mobutu, just as he did not like Robert Bourgi any more”explains the lawyer who will demonstrate in several passages the reasons for this disenchantment.
Bury Fillon
Editorial: François Fillon and the end of the rightEdito: François Fillon and the end of the right
On the other hand, Bourgi maintains very good relations with François Fillon. A friend of thirty years and over who will decide to turn his back sharply on him after winning the primary of the right and the center on November 27, 2016. “He no longer even responded to my messages. I suddenly became a plague victim.” Fillon, Sarkozy’s former Prime Minister, is already on the ropes with the “Pénélopegate” affair, the fictitious employment of his wife as parliamentary attaché. Bourgi decides to “fuck” definitively, in his words, by revealing that he had offered him two suits for 15,000 euros from a luxury Parisian house. An exit which definitively disqualifies the candidate but which also shakes the entire French right, the political family of Robert Bourgi. “JI have no regrets. I missed François Fillon man to man and even seriously. The rest didn’t matter to me.”he explains.
Robert Bourgi with Frédéric Lejeal: They know that I know everything. My life in Françafrique, Max Milo, pp 512, €24.90
