Paris, January 19, 2021. Edouard Balladur arrives at the Court of Justice of the Republic where he is tried in the context of the Karachi case.

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Alain JOCARD / AFP

  • The Court of Justice of the Republic judges, until February 11, Édouard Balladur and François Léotard for "complicity in the abuse of social good" and "concealment".

  • Twenty-five years later, they are accused of having financed the presidential campaign of 1995 with hidden funds taken from arms contracts with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

  • Édouard Balladur, 91, has always denied the facts, explaining that the cash payments to his campaign account came from donations from individuals.

At the Court of Justice of the Republic,

The sky has been threatening Paris for several days.

And, as a far-sighted man, Édouard Balladur is not the type to ignore the weather forecast.

This Wednesday, he did not even wait to leave the Court of Justice of the Republic, where he has been tried since January 19, to open the umbrella.

“I feel totally at ease,” he said at the stand a few minutes earlier, after an interrogation lasting more than an hour.

I never considered that my role was to get involved in everything… ”

And especially not of the commissions related to the contracts of armament of which he is accused of having used to illegally finance his campaign of 1995. Twenty-five years later, it is what earned him to appear before this Court, the only one authorized. to try ministers for offenses committed in the exercise of their mandates.

François Léotard, his former Minister of Defense, shares with him the bench of defendants.

And the denials too.

"I'm afraid I won't bring you satisfaction"

Because the two men fiercely deny having touched the slightest penny of dirty money to finance the 1995 campaign, which also ended in failure, Jacques Chirac winning in the end.

Édouard Balladur does not even want to hear about it.

Right in his boots at the bar, he warns Dominique Pauthe, the President of the Court, from the start of the interrogation.

“This business is extraordinarily complicated and I'm too afraid to make mistakes.

Also if you want to push further you will give it a try.

But I'm afraid I won't give you much satisfaction… ”

Forewarned is forearmed.

Dominique Pauthe therefore competes in ingenuity to obtain information.

Wasted effort.

Édouard Balladur refutes, brushes aside the accusations and digresses.

Here is the former Prime Minister who evokes the day when he "cooled" the atmosphere during an interview with a foreign politician who offered him money to finance his party.

Or the one where he decided to reduce campaign expenses when he was advised to increase the number of meetings, on the contrary.

In other words: he has nothing to be ashamed of.

Ten million francs in donations during meetings

But facts are stubborn.

And President Pauthe still wants to know where the 10.250 million Francs (about 1.5 million euros) came from which landed in small denominations on his campaign accounts.

The former prime minister does not know.

But he doesn't hesitate to take out the imperfect subjunctive to show that he doesn't let it down.

"I would have taken the risk of participating in fraudulent operations of 600 million [the total amount of commissions on armaments contracts] so that I would be allocated 10 million?

It is really to lend me a behavior of total irrationality!

No, the most logical explanation according to him is that these 10 million come from donations from individuals at public meetings.

“1.5 million euros, that's 15,000 euros per department.

I have no doubt that we obtained these donations.

"Even if his team has never been able to present the slightest proof ...

The question of the Constitutional Council

But that does not pose a problem for Édouard Balladur.

For the simple reason that everything was validated by the Constitutional Council in its time.

And when it is pointed out to him that the recent revelation of the archives of the Sages shows, on the contrary, that his account should in reality have been invalidated precisely for this reason, he gets annoyed.

Who criticizes the attitude of Renaud Van Ruymbeke, "an incompetent judge", guilty of having dared to search these archives "at the risk of undermining our freedoms".

Outside of the general prosecutor's office, no one dares to ask a question.

At that time, President Pauthe proposed a short suspension of the meeting before resuming with the hearing of a witness.

"If that doesn't bother you, I'm going to step down, so ...", concluded the former prime minister.

His trial is due to end on February 11.

Justice

Karachi case: Twenty-five years later, Édouard Balladur tried for hidden financing

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