Election scandal in France: indicator of morality - COMMENT

Baku. 2 March. REPORT.AZ/ First round of presidential election in France to be held on April 23, 2017, while the second round on May 7.

As Azerbaijan is unindifferent to France, great political, social and economic events are interesting for Azerbaijan. At least France is one of the mediators in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, in other words, it is the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair. There is a strong Armenian lobby in the country. Presidential and parliamentary candidates and other elected bodies, as a rule, give some promises to them. In terms of such issues election-related news in France is of interest for Azerbaijani society.

Scandalous events always occur in country's elite political circles.

Julie Gayet, Francois Hollande, Valérie Trierweiler

Francois Hollande nominated from Socialist Party became president in 2012. Two years after becoming president his secret affair with actress Julie Gayet revealed. In this way he ended his relationship with Valérie Trierweiler. French president banned his ex partner from entering the Presidential Palace.

Notably, Hollande has never married officially. Socialist politician had civil marriage with Ségolène Royal for 28 years. They have 4 children. At present Francois Hollande has civil marriage with Valérie Trierweiler who 10 years younger than him. At that time this event was regarded as a private matter of the president of the country. But in any case it can be considered as norms of French society.

Unlike Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal, Francois Hollande did not have such serious political threat.

Nicolas Sarkozy, Carla Bruni

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy 2007-2012 was also married after coming to power again. He married for the third time with Italian model Carla Bruni.

He elected head of country's leading opposition party - Union for a Popular Movement and had a chance to participate in the presidential election, the new President elected in 2017, had a chance to be a candidate during presidential elections in 2017. As Sarkozy embroiled in corruption scandal his claim was denied.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

The luckiest candidate in presidential election in 2012 was former managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn. But he was arrested for sexual assault after the complaint from a 32-year-old servant of Sofitel hotel in New York. Strauss-Kahn released after the completion of the election campaign in France. He was a member of French Socialist Party.

The wife of the former frontrunner in France’s presidential election has been held for questioning over a deepening payments scandal.

Francois Fillon, Penelope

Francois Fillon’s wife, Penelope, had been summoned alongside her husband by magistrates investigating allegations the politician paid family members for fake parliamentary jobs.

Fillon, who was leading polls until the scandal broke last month, abruptly postponed a high-profile event as investigations continued on Wednesday.

He facesa full judicial inquiry into the so-called “Penelopegate” affair but has backtracked from a previous pledge that he would stand down in the event of an official probe being launched.

Fillon has denied wrongdoing, and says his wife was paid hundreds of thousands of euros for genuine work as his parliamentary assistant, though he has acknowledged giving her the work was an error of judgement.

French police

French centre-right candidate Francois Fillon’s campaign director Patrick Stefanini had handed in his resignation. Aggravation of the pre-election situation is not excluded.Because presidential elections in France will be held in a state of emergency.

Notably, 130 people died on November 13, 2015 as a result of terrorist acts in France. Last December, the French Senate approved the extension of the state of emergency until 15 July 2017.

So France is going to presidential election in a state of emergency. The main candidates presidential candidate is accused offraud. Of course all of these will not go unpunished in democratic state. However, occurrence of such incidents in the states that mediate in the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, reduces trust in that state and puts fair position in the settlement of the conflict in doubt. There is no guarantee that their "private matter" will not affect the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Who can guarantee that parties will not take bribery to resolve the conflict in favor of rivals of Azerbaijan with fraud or new civil marriage. After all, relying on the rules of democratic society they violate moral norms after being elected to high positions or while holding that post.