French Socialists Slip in Furor Over Kickbacks : Politics: The ruling party squeaks by in a National Assembly censure vote over ‘two-speed justice.’

What began as legislation to clean up rampant corruption in French political fund-raising has backfired on the ruling Socialist Party here, prompting a crisis in the criminal justice system and sinking French President Francois Mitterrand’s rating in national public opinion polls.

On Wednesday, the Socialist government narrowly escaped an opposition-sponsored vote of censure in the National Assembly that, if successful, could have forced Prime Minister Michel Rocard and his Cabinet to resign. As it was, the beleaguered Socialists only managed to survive with the reluctant help of French Communist Party members in the Assembly.

Public furor over the Socialist-authored political financing reform law centers on an amendment that grants amnesty to politicians charged with accepting kickbacks from government contractors for their political parties. Since the law was enacted in December, more than 40 politicians, including former Socialist minister Christian Nucci, have had charges against them dropped in cases involving the equivalent of several million dollars in illegal kickbacks.

This sparked a revolt by judges and magistrates across France. The judges demonstrated their anger by dropping charges against dozens of non-politicians accused of various crimes, ranging from petty theft to tax evasion. In one publicized case in the Brittany city of Vanne, a woman convicted of failure to pay more than 195,000 francs ($35,000) in taxes was fined the equivalent of only $5 by a sympathetic judge. The judge, referring to the controversial amnesty law, then suspended the fine.

The amnesty amendment, many of the protesting judges said, makes a mockery of the judicial system by providing one set of rules for elected officials and another for common citizens.

“We can’t accept this kind of two-speed justice,” said Gaullist opposition leader Jacques Chirac, author of the censure motion defeated Wednesday.

The controversy has offered a rare peek into the occult inner workings of the French political system that has traditionally depended on secret kickbacks from government contractors to fund political activities and electoral campaigns. One of the most commonly employed methods for raising political funds in France is said to be “false billings” in large government contracts. Under this system, payments, usually under the guise of “feasibility studies,” are authorized to political supporters of the party in power in the region where the contract has been granted. Most of the money is then diverted to the political party.

Ironically, it was just this kind of corruption that prompted Socialist Interior Minister Pierre Joxe to introduce the political financing reform law last summer. Under the law, modeled on American campaign finance legislation, political parties are required for the first time to account for the source of all their income. The law also provides for government matching funds to help support political campaigns.

Before the financing reform law came to a vote in the National Assembly, however, there was pressure to do something about several dozen politicians, including leading Socialists Nucci of Isere and Michel Pezet of Marseilles, who already faced criminal charges in French courts alleging misuse of government funds.

In the spirit of “clearing the slate,” the Socialists in the National Assembly offered an amendment to the Joxe law granting politicians amnesty from prosecution in cases in which the illegally obtained money was used to finance party activities. Theoretically, the amnesty did not apply to politicians who used the money for personal enrichment.

The financing law and the amnesty amendment sailed through the assembly last December. Most opposition leaders, including Chirac, abstained, an act that most interpreted as tacit approval.

The amendment did not become controversial until this spring, when criminal judges began to protest the widespread use of the law to drop charges against elected officials. Both Nucci and Pezet, for example, were granted amnesty.

On one level, the swirling controversy is another factor in the rapidly falling popularity of the Socialists and their aging leader, President Mitterrand. A year ago, the 73-year-old Mitterrand enjoyed one of the highest popular approval ratings of any political figure in Europe, nearly 60%. However, a recent survey by the SOFRES polling agency, taken in the wake of the amnesty scandal, showed only 37% of those interviewed said they were “satisfied” with his leadership.

“In only a few months,” noted French journalist Serge July, editor of the daily newspaper Liberation, “the statistically blue sky of Mitterrandism has turned black.”

On another level, perhaps, it reflects a growing feeling that Mitterrand, who has five years left on his term as president, is no longer in touch with the major issues that concern many French: immigration, unemployment and wages that have lagged behind the generally booming economy.

BACKGROUND

French President Francois Mitterrand, 73, was first elected in 1981. Next May, he will have served 10 years in office. This approaching anniversary has inspired several political columnists to recall the slogan used by Mitterrand in an unsuccessful political campaign against the late President Charles de Gaulle at a similar time in De Gaulle’s career: “Ten years,” said Mitterrand. “That’s enough.”