🇫🇷French Scandals: Fillon, Guerriau, Terraces
François Fillon condemned to four years prison, Guerriau accused once again, and Paris city hall in fight over terraces
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This week
👮François Fillon condemned to four years prison
🔗Guerriau accused once again
⛱Paris city hall in fight over terraces
👮François Fillon condemned to four years prison
To kick the week off, we have some big news:
Having been under investigation since the 2017 Presidential elections, having been handed a four-year prison sentence and a hefty fine in 2022, having appealed and having been found definitively guilty in the Penelope-gate fictional jobs scandal that ended his career in 2024, a final decision was finally handed down to François Fillon.
With the initial one-year of firm prison time set aside, Fillion will face a four-year suspended prison sentence, a fine of €375,000, and ten years of political ineligibility, rubbing salt into the wound that is the fact that his political career is over.
There was also a confirmation that the Assemblée Nationale is owed a repayment of €126,167 to cover the costs of one of Penelope Fillon’s contracts as a parliamentary assistant for her husband, for only the years 2012 and 2013.
It’s yet another example of the fact that the French state takes crimes committed by politicians incredibly seriously, and that politicians are not afforded any special protection because of their positions in French society.
It’s also a clear indication that, as often repeated, Marine Le Pen’s punishment of a five-year ban from public office was not some kind of fluke, and that she actually got off fairly lightly compared to Fillon.
One important thing to note, here, is that with a very similar act of criminal fraud and financial embezzlement, Fillon’s appeal didn’t achieve anything with regards to his ban from political life, and can be a very good indication of what Marine Le Pen’s appeal will end up not achieving.
So, barring any surprises, we can probably start pricing in a Bardella 2027 run already.
🔗Guerriau accused once again
As discussed back in this Weekly Dispatch of November 2023, 66 year-old Senator, Joël Guerriau (Horizons), was charged with “administering to a person, without their knowledge, a substance likely to impair their discernment or control over their actions, in order to commit rape or sexual assault”, as well as “possession and use of substances classified as narcotics”.
His defence? That it was a “handling error” and that his drugging of Deputy Sandrine Josso was a mistake. Naturally, nobody believed him.
While this has been going through the legal process, and the Paris Prosecutor’s office requested a trial against him, yet another individual has come forward with a similar accusation.
Complément d'enquête, a great investigative TV show that aired an episode on ‘the secrets of the senate’ this past Thursday, touched upon the court case as part of an exposé on the culture of the French Senate.
And during this episode, they dropped the bombshell testimonial from a woman who says that she was drugged without her knowledge and abused while spending an evening at his apartment in Paris in 2022, describing very similar symptoms to those Sandrine Josso experienced.
Naturally, the MP denied the accusations, and the woman has yet to file a complaint herself, but has come forward to testify regarding the initial case.
Now, whether she does or not, Guerriau is in trouble. It’s important to note that Guerriau is not currently subject to parliamentary immunity as he is being investigated for being caught in the act, which automatically removes this immunity.
⛱Paris city hall in fight over terraces
To finish off the week, the Paris City Hall has announced that terraces in the capital will be able to stay open until 11 pm every evening from June 21 until September 14, starting off with the Fête de la musique.
The problem is that this means that Parisians who live in the immediate vicinity of these bars need to now deal with this, and residents appear to be deeply unhappy.
According to reports by Le Monde, this was initially announced at the beginning of June, and there was an immediate reaction from around thirty groups of residents across Paris who denounced the city’s “lies”, and you can see this in the publication by the Marais-Louvre Association (MLA).
Named after the ‘defence and promotion of the living environment in the centre of Paris’, the MLA argues that “the decision to open the terraces at 11 pm was taken without any consultation with the residents' associations. It has been discussed with professional bodies alone."
According to the group, there was a limit of 10 pm in the initial discussions back in 2021, when the revisions of the regulations concerning terraces were discussed. They also claim that the city is ignoring promises made in its plan to improve the sound environment’ for the city.
They also refer to the impact that noise is having on Parisians, sharing the estimation that “more than 150,000 inhabitants of Paris will have sleep and sleep disorders with all the known consequences on their health,” with an increased seriousness for “pregnant women, very young children, all these young people in exam or competition periods, and the elderly.”
This has led to this blowing up into a political fight, with Pierre-Yives Bournazel (Horizons) making this a key part of his campaign to be elected as Mayor of Paris
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“To all the associations and collectives mobilized against #bruit to #Paris : I share your fight.
In 2026, I will make clear commitments to give Parisians a better quality of life.
My letter and my first commitments”
However, the problem is that nobody knows how much support these initiatives actually have in either direction, and we likely won’t know until March next year, when the 2026 Paris municipal election will take place.
Will this kind of event benefit any candidate? Will citizens choose to punish Anne Hidalgo’s successor from the socialists or reward them? and will any candidate be able to benefit from this?
Or will we simply see another extension of national politics penetrating downwards into the capital? With centrist or right-wing candidates being punished for the behaviour of their national parties and the views regarding the government?
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Good, the rule of law is working.
honestly bardella doesn't scare me as much as he used to. light in the loafers, i don't think he'll convince anywhere near enough people.