70% of French see politicians as corrupt

A recent opinion poll shows that 70 percent of people in France perceive their country’s politicians as corrupt, Press TV reports.

The recent results from the survey conducted by research firm BVA suggest a 30 percent increase in French people who view politicians as corrupt, in three years.

About 60 percent of those polled identifying themselves as left-leaning individuals and 66 percent of those leaning to the right cited widespread corruption as a major problem in their country.

The survey was released as French business mogul and former politician Bernard Tapie was charged in a corruption case involving a 400-million-euro (USD 515 million) government payout to him by former Finance Minister Christine Lagarde.

In May, Lagarde, currently the chief of International Monetary Fund, was also in court over the government payout.

Although he denied the allegations, Jerome Cahuzac resigned as France’s budget minister on March 19, after prosecutors opened an investigation into tax fraud allegations, revealed by the internet news site Mediapart in December 2012.

Cahuzac was later charged with laundering the proceeds of tax fraud after he admitted to having an undeclared Swiss bank account with about 600,000 euros (about 776,000 US dollars) for the past 20 years.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has also been under fire over allegations of illegal campaign funding from former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and L’Oreal cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

Meanwhile, recent opinion polls also show a drop in President Francois Hollande’s popularity rating.

The rise in political corruption cases comes as France is also dealing with a struggling economy.

The country has not only been struggling with a worsened economy but it has been also hit by a record high number of 3.26 million jobseekers in April, despite campaign promises by Hollande to curb the rise in unemployment by the end of 2013.