The Jérôme Cahuzac Affair

The global financial crisis of 2008 is considered by many to be the worst financial crisis since 1929’s Black Thursday. It left France and the rest of Europe exhausted and indebted. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France from 2007 to 2012, was in charge at the time. Following his five years of tenure, he was ousted after losing the second round of the 2012 presidential elections against Francois Hollande. French people had grown distrustful and wary of the political scene and its participants, making this affair extremely timely.

Jérôme Cahuzac is a physician whose political career began in 1997 when he was elected to be a deputy of the National Assembly. The National Assembly is one of the two major political bodies in France. Currently 577 deputies make up the National Assembly. Along with the Senate, it forms the parliament of the Fifth French Republic. Going from general counsel of the Department of "Lot-et-Garonne" to mayor, and back to deputy, Mr. Cahuzac made a solid name and reputation for himself. In 2010, he was elected President of the Finance, General Economy and Budgetary Control Committees of the National Assembly. Two years later, in 2012, he joined François Hollande's presidential campaign team. He was given the task to handle the budgetary, financial and fiscal aspects of the campaign. After Mr. Hollande’s success and election as France’s President, Cahuzac was appointed Delegated Minister of Budget on the 16th of May, 2012.

This affair will be broken-down into three main parts: the beginning of the affair, the downfall of its participants, and the reason for the affair’s unveiling.

This affair originally came out with the publishing of a “secret recording” by Mediapart. This informational website was launched in 2008 by an editorial team of 35 influential journalists. The recording originally took place towards the end of the year 2000, but was only revealed in the beginning of March 2013. It contained the voices of two individuals, Cahuzac and his wealth manager Hervé Dreyfus. Both were discussing a variety of financial and private matters. Among these matters, was that of his bank account with UBS. Mr. Cahuzac explained to his associate that his account with that bank was bothering him because he had no more use for it. It was later found that he had transferred all the funds present on that bank account to another one overseas. Here is a short part of the (French) scripted recording that accurately depicts the previously referred to situation:

“Ca me fait chier d’avoir un compte ouvert là-bas, l’UBS c’est quand même pas forcément la plus planquée des banques.”

In English, this translates to:

“The fact of having a bank account open there truly bothers me, UBS isn’t necessarily the most hidden of banks.”

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