Ex-minister’s fraud sign of democratic earthquake in France

A founder of the online newspaper, Mediapart, which has revealed the tax fraud case by former French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac says the scandal signifies a “democratic earthquake” in France.

“What is unprecedented is the democratic earthquake that has been set off by this scandal. It is not the most serious scandal of recent times — Bettencourt, Karachi, Takédine, Sarkozy, Gadaffi are much more significant in terms of exploiting the justice system, the amount of money, arms trafficking — they are much more serious which weighed heavily on the old conservative right-wing majority,” Edwy Plenel said in a Thursday interview with the Euronews.

In early December 2012, Mediapart published reports accusing Cahuzac of stashing away funds in foreign tax havens.

Cahuzac denied the allegations for several months, calling them “slanderous” and told the French parliament that, “I don’t have, I never have had, accounts abroad.”

On March 19, Cahuzac resigned as France’s budget minister after prosecutors opened a probe into the account

On Tuesday, Cahuzac was charged with laundering the proceeds of tax fraud for a Swiss bank account with about 600,000 euros (USD 770,000).

“What’s new here is the democratic earthquake, because the political class – all sides mixed together – and an element of the media went along with Jerome Cahuzac in his lie,” Plenel noted.

For over three months, Mediapart was the only media outlet that placed the spotlight on the fraud case.

“Today we see this almost oligarchic world, somewhere between politics, money and the media which has gone along with the lies of Mr. Cahuzac, and everyone has discovered that the head of the tax department was himself a fraudster,” Plenel pointed out.

“It’s a serious blow for the Republic. It shows that France is a low-grade democracy. There are scandals in all of our countries, and sometimes there are corrupt politicians. A living democracy is one where you can not only make revelations, but where once something is revealed, the opposition swings into action and makes sure that justice prevails and sanctions are imposed,” the Mediapart founder said.