French political scandals - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Until 1958

1816 - shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....

of and search for French frigate Medusa off the west coast of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

.
1847 - Teste
Jean-Baptiste Teste
Jean-Baptiste Teste was a French politician of the July Monarchy. He fell from grace in the Teste-Cubières scandal.-Early life:...

-Cubières
Amédée Despans-Cubières
General Amédée Louis de Cubières , known as Despans-Cubières, was a French general and politician.-Youth:...

corruption scandal, revealed in May 1847
1847 - Charles de Choiseul-Praslin
Charles de Choiseul-Praslin
Charles Laure Hugues Théobald, duc de Choiseul-Praslin was a French nobleman and politician, who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1838–1842...

's suicide after having murdered his wife, daughter of Horace Sébastiani, Minister of the July Monarchy
July Monarchy
The July Monarchy , officially the Kingdom of France , was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848...

.
1880s - Boulanger Affair
1887 - Schnaebele incident
1887 - Wilson scandal, which led to the resignation of President Jules Grévy
Jules Grévy
François Paul Jules Grévy was a President of the French Third Republic and one of the leaders of the Opportunist Republicans faction. Given that his predecessors were monarchists who tried without success to restore the French monarchy, Grévy is seen as the first real republican President of...
1890s - Panama scandals
Panama scandals
The Panama scandals was a corruption affair that broke out in the French Third Republic in 1892, linked to the building of the Panama Canal...
1894 - the Dreyfus Affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...

, treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

conviction of Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...

- exposed by writer Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...

on January 13, 1898.
1928 - Marthe Hanau
Marthe Hanau
Marthe Hanau was a Frenchwoman who defrauded French financial markets in the 1920s and 1930s.Marthe Hanau was born in Lille to a Jewish family of an industrialist. She married, and later divorced Lazare Bloch. In 1925, she and Bloch founded an economic newspaper, La Gazette du Franc et des...

affair
1930 - Albert Oustric affair
1934 - the Stavisky Affair
Stavisky Affair
The Stavisky Affair was a 1934 financial scandal generated by the actions of embezzler Alexandre Stavisky. It had political ramifications for the French Radical Socialist moderate government of the day...

, embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....

and political corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

.
1949 - the Generals Affair, a political-military scandal during the First Indochina War
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...

.
1950 - the Henri Martin Affair
Henri Martin Affair
The Henri Martin Affair was a political-military scandal that happened under the French Fourth Republic during the First Indochina War. It lasted from March 1950 to September 1953....

, a political-military scandal during the First Indochina War
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...

.
1958 - the ballets roses
Ballets roses
The Ballets roses was a scandal that was publicized in 1958 in France. In a fashionable country house near Paris, belonging to the French Senate, a group of girls aged 15 to 17 performed "ballets" attended by prominent figures of the political and social worlds, notably, André Le Troquer, then...

, a scandal most notably involving then President of the Senate, André Le Troquer
André Le Troquer
André Le Troquer was a French politician, socialist lawyer, and president of the National Assembly from 12 January 1954 to 10 January 1955, and a second time from 24 January 1956 to 4 October 1958.-Career:...

, in which a group of girls aged 15 to 17 performed "ballets" that ended in orgies.

Under the Fifth Republic

1965 - the Ben Barka affair, disappearance of the Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka
Mehdi Ben Barka
Mehdi Ben Barka was a Moroccan politician, head of the left-wing National Union of Popular Forces and secretary of the Tricontinental Conference...

.
1968 - The Markovic affair
The Markovic affair
The Markovic affair was a political scandal in France in the late 1960s, involving French President George Pompidou and movie star Alain Delon.-Death of Stevan Markovic:...
1974
- Eurodif
  Eurodif
  Eurodif, which means European Gaseous Diffusion Uranium Enrichment Consortium, is a subsidiary of the French company AREVA which operates a uranium enrichment plant established at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Center in Pierrelatte in Drôme...
  
  Affair.
- Cardinal Jean Daniélou's death in the house of a prostitute (1974)
- Le Monde
  Le Monde
  Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
  
  reveals the existence of the SAFARI
  SAFARI
  SAFARI was an attempt by the French government, under the presidency of Georges Pompidou, to create a centralized database of personal data. The database was supposed to interconnect data, in particular through the use of the INSEE code .On March 21, 1974 an article in the newspaper Le Monde...
  
  government database
  Government database
  Government databases collect personal information for various reasons .-Canada:...
  
  , prompting the creation of the CNIL
  CNIL
  The Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés or CNIL is an independent French administrative authority whose mission is to ensure that data privacy law is applied to the collection, storage, and use of personal data. Its existence was established by French , concerning computers,...
  
  agency in charge of respect of civil rights and data privacy
  Data privacy
  Information privacy, or data privacy is the relationship between collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, and the legal and political issues surrounding them....
  
  .
1979

- Robert Boulin Affair (Boulin was a minister of the third Raymond Barre
  Raymond Barre
  Raymond Octave Joseph Barre was a French centre-right politician and economist. He was a Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs under three Presidents and later served as Prime Minister under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing from 1976 until 1981...
  
  government, found dead in mysterious circumstances on October 30, 1979)
- Diamonds Affair involving Bokassa.
1981 - The Canard enchaîné uncovered the Collaborationist role of former Minister Maurice Papon
Maurice Papon
Maurice Papon was a French civil servant, industrial leader and Gaullist politician, who was convicted for crimes against humanity for his participation in the deportation of over 1600 Jews during World War II when he was secretary general for police of the Prefecture of Bordeaux.Papon also...

under Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

. The latter will be eventually convicted of crimes against humanity.
1985 - Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Opération Satanique, was an operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure , carried out on July 10, 1985...

by the French DGSE intelligence agency
1986 - Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...

: Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...

's government wrongly alleged that the "radioactive cloud" had stopped at the French borders.
1987-1988 - Iskandar Safa
Iskandar Safa
Iskandar Safa is a French businessman of Lebanese origins , who became famous during the Lebanese hostage crisis in 1987-88 and suspected financial transactions of the ransom...

and the Hostage Scandal involving Prime Minister Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...

and Interior Minister Charles Pasqua
Charles Pasqua
Charles Pasqua is a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's cohabitation government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government of Edouard Balladur...

.
1980s - Contaminated blood scandal
Infected blood scandal (France)
France's Infected blood scandal began in April 1991 when doctor and journalist Anne-Marie Casteret published an article in the weekly magazine the L'Événement du jeudi proving that the Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine knowingly distributed blood products contaminated with HIV to...

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9902/07/france.blood/index.html
The Canard enchaîné satirical newspaper fought to bring to light evidence of alleged corruption during President Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...

's tenure as mayor of Paris. (see: Chirac's role in Parisian corruption scandals)
1990s - Angolagate
Angolagate
Angolagate, also known as the Mitterrand-Pasqua affair, is an international political scandal over the secret sale and shipment of arms from Central Europe to the government of Angola by the Government of France in the 1990s...

(arms-for-oil scandal)
- Taiwan frigates scandal (aka La Fayette scandal
  La Fayette class frigate
  The La Fayette class units are light multi-mission frigates built by DCN and operated by French Marine Nationale...
  
  - fr:Affaire des frégates de Taïwan)
1994 - Yann Piat Affair (a former Front National
Front National
Front National can mean:* Front National , a French political party* Front National , a World War II French Resistance group* Front National , a Belgian political party...

far-right MP, assassinated on February 25, 1994)
1998 - Affair Elf
Elf Aquitaine
Elf Aquitaine was a French oil company which merged with TotalFina to form TotalFinaElf. The new company changed its name to Total in 2003...

-Dumas
Roland Dumas
Roland Dumas is a lawyer and French Socialist politician who served notably as Foreign Minister under President François Mitterrand from 1984 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1993...
1999 - "Affair of the beach huts", leading to the arrest of prefect Bernard Bonnet
Bernard Bonnet
Bernard Bonnet , French civil servant, is best known for being the first prefect since World War II to be convicted of an offense committed in the course of his duties, his role in the "Affair of the beach huts".- Early career :...
2005
- The revelations of the Canard enchaîné
  Le Canard enchaîné
  Le Canard enchaîné is a satirical newspaper published weekly in France. Founded in 1915, it features investigative journalism and leaks from sources inside the French government, the French political world and the French business world, as well as many jokes and humorous cartoons.-Early...
  
  on Finance Minister Hervé Gaymard
  Hervé Gaymard
  Hervé Gaymard is a French politician and a member of UMP conservative party. He served as the country's Minister of Finances from 30 November 2004 until his resignation on 25 February 2005....
  
  's (UMP
  Union for a Popular Movement
  The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
  
  ) lavish state-funded apartment led to his resignation in 2005.

2006
- Clearstream affair
  Clearstream affair
  The "Clearstream affair" was a political scandal in France in the run-up to the 2007 presidential election.The name refers to the Luxembourg bank Clearstream Banking S.A., now wholly owned by Deutsche Börse, which was alleged to have aided many prominent French politicians and companies evade taxes...
  
  allegedly involving French prime minister Dominique de Villepin
  Dominique de Villepin
  Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....
  
  (UMP) accused of attempting to discredit his political rivals, including UMP leader Nicolas Sarkozy
  Nicolas Sarkozy
  Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
  
  , by spreading false allegations concerning the Taiwan frigates scandal.

2010
- Bettencourt affair
  Bettencourt affair
  The Bettencourt affair involves illegal payments by Liliane Bettencourt to members of the French government associated with Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010.-History:...

Until 1958

Under the Fifth Republic

See also