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POLITICS

French far left political leader guilty of shoving police officer

A French court on Monday handed a suspended jail term of three months to far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon over his conduct during a raid on his party offices last year, when he shoved a police officer and a prosecutor.

Published: 9 December 2019 14:29 CET
French far left political leader guilty of shoving police officer
Photo: AFP

Melenchon, leader of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, was convicted on charges of rebellion and provocation by the court in Bobigny outside Paris and ordered to pay a fine of €8,000.

“This is a political judgement,” Melenchon said as he left the courthouse, saying he had hoped to be acquitted. He also expressed irritation at having to deal with the issue while backing the strikes against the pension reforms planned by President Emmanuel Macron.

David Lepidi, the lawyer for the police, which was a civil party in the case, said  “this affair was not politicised” and criticised the “putting in place of a smokescreen for propaganda”.

Another LFI lawmaker, Alexis Corbiere, was acquitted but its MP Bastien Lachaud, MEP Manuel Bompard and spokeswoman Muriel Rozenfeld were also handed fines of up to €7,000.

Melenchon had shoved a prosecutor and an officer in a fit of rage over police raids to search his home and party headquarters.

The searches had been carried out as part of two investigations – one into the party's use of European Parliament funds, the other into the funding of Melenchon's 2017 presidential campaign.

“The Republic, it's me, I'm the one who is a parliamentarian. Get out of the way and open up this door,” an apoplectic Melenchon shouted at the policeman standing guard outside before proceeding to try to ram the door open at his offices.

A political veteran famous for his tirades against globalisation, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and elites, Melenchon enjoys a cult following among leftists but is seen as a polarising figure on the centre and right.

A slew of prominent French politicians are currently facing legal probes, notably former prime minister Francois Fillon, who will go on trial on February 24 on accusations of creating a fictitious job for his wife paid for by public funds.

Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen and her father, Jean-Marie, both longtime former MEPs, have both been charged with misuse of public funds in connection with salaries paid to dozens of EU parliamentary aides.

And French veteran centrist leader Francois Bayrou as well as former defence minister Sylvie Goulard have been charged in a case related to the embezzlement of European Parliament funds.

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ECONOMY

S&P downgrades French credit rating in blow to Macron

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded France's credit score on Friday citing a deterioration in the country's budgetary position, a blow to Emmanuel Macron's government days before EU parliamentary elections.

Published: 1 June 2024 15:44 CEST
S&P downgrades French credit rating in blow to Macron

In a statement, the American credit assessor justified its decision to drop France’s long-term sovereign debt rating from “AA” to “AA-” on concerns over lower-than-expected growth.

It warned that “political fragmentation” would make it difficult for the government to implement planned reforms to balance public finances and forecast the budget deficit would remain above the targeted three percent of GDP in 2027.

The S&P’s first downgrade of France since 2013 puts the EU’s second-largest economy on par with the Czech Republic and Estonia but above Spain and Italy.

The announcement will sting for Macron, who has staked a reputation as an economic reformer capable of restoring France’s accounts after low growth and high spending.

The risk of a ratings downgrade had been looming for several quarters, with the previous “AA” assessment given a “negative outlook”.

The surprise slippage in the public deficit for 2023 to 5.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) instead of the expected 4.9 percent did not play in the government’s favour.

France’s general government debt will increase to about 112 percent of GDP by 2027, up from around 109 percent in 2023, “contrary to our previous expectations”, the agency added.

Responding to the downgrade decision, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire reaffirmed the government’s commitment to slashing the public deficit to below three percent by 2027.

“Our strategy remains the same: reindustrialise, achieve full employment and keep to our trajectory to get back under the three percent deficit in 2027,” he said in an interview with newspaper Le Parisien, insisting that nothing would change in the daily lives of the French.

Le Maire claimed the downgrade was primarily driven by the government’s abundant spending during the Covid pandemic to provide a lifeline to businesses and French households.

The main reason for the downgrade was because “we saved the French economy,” he said.

Government critics offered a different rationale.

“This is where the pitiful management of public finances by the Macron/Le Maire duo gets us!” Eric Ciotti, head of the right-wing Republicans party, wrote on social media platform X.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen called the Macron administration’s handling of public finances “catastrophic” and denounced the government as being “as incompetent as they are arrogant”.

A credit downgrade risks putting off investors and making it more difficult to pay off debt.

Earlier this year, influential ratings agencies Moody’s and Fitch spared handing France a lower note.

S&P also maintained its “stable” outlook for France on Friday on “expectations that real economic growth will accelerate and support the government’s budgetary consolidation”, albeit not enough to bring down its high debt-to-GDP ratio.

“S&P’s downgrading of France’s debt simply reflects an imperative that we are already aware of: the need to continue restoring our public finances,” Public Accounts Minister Thomas Cazenave wrote in a statement sent to AFP.

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