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u.s. news Diabierna 1 OctOber 2021

Sarkozy convicted by French court in campaign financing case

(AP) — French ex-Presi- reelection bid that he lost to notes from his accountants
dent Nicolas Sarkozy, who Socialist Francois Hollande. warning about the money is-
was convicted Thursday sue.
and sentenced to a year The court stated that Sarkozy
of house arrest for illegal “knew” the legal limit was at The court on Thursday said
campaign financing of his stake and “voluntarily” failed despite being aware of the
unsuccessful 2012 reelec- to supervise additional ex- risk of exceeding the limit,
tion bid, will appeal the penses. he chose to organize many
ruling, his lawyer said. rallies, including giant ones.
Thursday’s verdict comes “These rallies have been ap-
The court said Sarkozy after Sarkozy, 66, was found proved by Nicolas Sarkozy
would be allowed to serve the guilty on March 1 of corrup- and he took advantage of
one-year sentence at home by tion and influence peddling them,” the court said.
wearing an electronic moni- in another case. He was giv-
toring bracelet. en a year in prison, and two During the trial, Sarkozy told
years suspended, in that case the court the extra money
Sarkozy’s lawyer, Thierry but is free pending appeal. didn’t go into his campaign,
Herzog, noted that the sen- but instead helped make oth-
tence corresponds to the It is the first time in France’s er people richer. He denied
maximum his client faced. modern history that a former any “fraudulent intent.” He
He said he had spoken with president has been convicted also insisted he didn’t handle
Sarkozy, who had asked him and sentenced to a prison the day-to-day organization
to appeal. term for actions during his because he had a team to do
term. Sarkozy’s predecessor, that and therefore couldn’t
“The verdict won’t be en- Jacques Chirac, was found be blamed for the amount of
forceable” pending appeal, he guilty in 2011 of misuse of spending.
added. public money during his
time as Paris mayor and was In addition to the former
Sarkozy, France’s president given a two-year suspended president, 13 other people
from 2007 to 2012, had vig- prison sentence. went on trial, including tence to two years of house spending.
orously denied wrongdoing members of his conservative arrest with an electronic
during the trial in May and In the campaign financing Republicans party, accoun- bracelet. Various charges in- Sarkozy retired from active
June. case, prosecutors concluded tants and heads of the com- clude forgery, fraud and com- politics in 2017, but is still
that Sarkozy knew weeks be- munication group in charge plicity in illegal campaign fi- playing a role behind the
Sarkozy wasn’t present at the fore the 2012 election that his of organizing the rallies, Byg- nancing. scenes. French media have
Paris court for the ruling. He expenses — which are strictly malion. reported that he is involved
is accused of having spent limited under French law — Some have acknowledged in the process of choosing a
almost twice the maximum were getting close to the le- They have all been found wrongdoing and detailed the conservative candidate ahead
legal amount of 22.5 million gal maximum. They accused guilty, with sentences going system of false invoices that of France’s presidential elec-
euros ($27.5 million) on the him of having ignored two from a suspended prison sen- aimed to cover up the over- tion next year.

2 women in Japan party leadership race get mixed reactions

(AP) — The inclusion of two women in Ja- though popular with voters and rank-and-file party “Their views are said to be very different, but only
pan’s leadership race — the first time in 13 members, was apparently a worrisome choice for as much as the LDP can tolerate,” said feminist ac-
years there hasn’t only been men — surprised the old guard. The two women, Sanae Takaichi and tivist and author Minori Kitahara.
many, prompting some hope of progress for Seiko Noda, were third and fourth.
a ruling party long seen as sexist and out of Takaichi, 60, rose to third in the leadership race
touch. Women are a tiny minority in Japanese politics, es- largely because she got crucial backing from Abe,
pecially within the Liberal Democratic Party. Only whose arch-conservative vision she supports. She
But their sound defeat? That was no surprise. about 10% of Japan’s parliament is female, and ana- has been criticized for advocating traditional gen-
lysts say many tend to try to advance by showing der roles and policies favored by male decision-
For some women, it also underscores that the Lib- party loyalty rather than pursuing gender equality. makers, rather than fighting for equality for other
eral Democratic Party, which has ruled the nation women.
almost without interruption since World War II, For the ruling LDP, the gender divide is especially
still operates in thrall of older, deeply conservative stark: only 9.8% of its 380-plus parliamentarians She supports the imperial family’s male-only suc-
male heavyweights, and that women are a long way are women, compared to other parties whose fe- cession, and opposes same-sex marriage and a revi-
from being equal in politics. male representation ranges from 15-32%. sion to the 19th-century civil law that could allow
women to keep their maiden name.
“Seems to me the LDP used these two women to Even if the results of Wednesday’s vote were pre-
impress the public with its effort to change and to dictable, Takaichi and Noda’s participation in the Takei, the lawyer, said she doesn’t agree with Taka-
whitewash its negative image in order to stay in leadership race marked an improvement for the ichi’s hawkish stance and gender policies, but “what
power,” said Yukiko Takei, a lawyer who lives near party and signals that senior members seem aware bothered me most was that it seemed she was used
Tokyo. of a disconnect with the public on the gender is- as a pawn to contain Kono (by diverting LDP votes
sues. that would have gone to him) ... to maintain the
The winner Wednesday, as expected, was a man old regime.”
firmly entrenched in the ruling establishment. Fu- The women themselves seem polar opposites in
mio Kishida, a former moderate foreign minister, their policies. Takei said the female candidates didn’t represent
has shifted to the right in an apparent bid to win the voices of ordinary women who often face sex-
backing by influential party leaders, including for- The ultra-conservative Takaichi advocates a kind ism and are marginalized in society. “I think wom-
mer Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Kishida will al- of paternalistic nationalism and a stronger military, en who survive in a male-dominated society and
most certainly become prime minister in a broader while the liberal-leaning pacifist Noda called for who have established even a small place should
election Monday because the LDP controls parlia- measures to address the nation’s declining popu- open a path for their peers.”
ment. lation and to support women’s advancement and
sexual diversity. Both support women’s health and Japan ranked 120th in a 156-nation gender gap
The runner-up in the party vote, vaccinations min- fertility issues that the conservative party considers ranking survey of the World Economic Forum in
ister Taro Kono, was something of a maverick and, key to productivity. 2021.