Johanna Legere/AFPIt was January 1998, and Robert Bourgi was ready to satisfy Gabonese President Omar Bongo within the lobby of Libreville’s seaside palace.
He was there to lift funds for the upcoming French presidential election on behalf of centre-right Gaullist candidate Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris.
Who must be ushered into the identical entrance room however Roland Dumas, France’s former overseas minister and Chirac’s fundamental rival and right-hand man of the ruling Socialist President François Mitterrand.
“Good day, Burgy,” Dumas stated. “I imagine we’re right here for a similar function.”
Dumas, happy with his seniority, walked into Bongo’s workplace first. After some time he got here out and stated to Burgi: “Don’t be concerned, there’s another factor!”
That is recounted in Burge’s newly printed memoir They know I do know the whole lot – my life in FranceThe anecdote speaks volumes concerning the money-grabbing and interdependent relationship that has lengthy existed between French and African politics.
For forty years, Robert Burge has been on the middle of all of it.
Born in Senegal in 1945 to Lebanese Shia mother and father, he turned a confidant of a technology of African leaders – from Omar Bongo in Gabon to Denis Sassou Nguesso within the Republic of Congo and Burkina Faso Blaise Compaoré.
Robert BurgeIn Paris, he inherited the legacy of the legendary Jacques Foccart, the Gaullist who oversaw the post-colonial Fafei Methods, and their preparations of affect and safety, markets, supplies, energy… and cash.
From the primary years after World Conflict II, Africa and its former French colonies have been a supply of funding for all French political events. middle. By the Eighties, when Bourgi got here on the scene, this had change into the norm.
Burgi stated he himself by no means imported the baggage of money.
“The process was easy. When the elections had been approaching, Chirac made it clear that I ought to ship the message in African capitals.
“this [African] The heads of state then despatched envoys to my workplace in Paris with a big sum of cash. Tens of millions of francs or {dollars}.
He stated African leaders donated round $10m (£7.5m) within the 1995 and 2002 presidential elections that Chirac gained.
The 2002 competitors supplied one other colourful story for Bourgui, when representatives of Burkina Faso chief Blaise Compaoré arrived in Paris with a big sum of cash hidden in an African drum.
In response to Bourgi, he accompanied the envoys to the Elysée Palace, the place Chirac greeted them. They used scissors to open the sealed bucket and a big amount of cash fell out.
Ramsey Haidar/AFP“Typical Blaise,” Burgy quoted Chirac as saying. “He despatched us cash in small denominations.” The cash was apparently 5 and ten {dollars}.
Dealing with money is not at all times simple. Burgi remembers a big donation from one other African chief to Chirac, saying: “The cash was in a Puma sports activities bag. I wished to place a wad of cash in a paper, so I went into my daughter’s room, took down one in all her posters and put her pockets inside.
Robert BurgeThis method was so widespread that it gave rise to a verb present giver ——from France Present, It means a present.
When Bourgui’s accusations first surfaced in 2011, officers in Burkina Faso and elsewhere denied them, though a former presidential adviser in Ivory Coast admitted they had been “historic apply.”
Jacques Chirac and his then chief of workers, Dominique de Villepin, additionally strenuously denied Burge’s claims.
An preliminary investigation was launched however was later deserted and no additional motion was taken as a result of it was too early for cost to be thought-about.
Burgi stated this was regular for African leaders on the time, and so they did it themselves. Providing substantial funding is one strategy to construct belief and assist.
However in a altering world, that is unsustainable, and Burge says he is disillusioned. Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to not take a penny from Africa when he got here to energy in 2007, and Burge stated he saved his phrase.
Sarkozy has since been investigated for allegedly accepting marketing campaign funds from Libyan chief Moammar Gaddafi, which he denies. Burge, a Sarkozy loyalist, stated he didn’t imagine the accusations.
The 79-year-old former lawyer additionally mirrored on his very totally different function in one other election, that of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. An opportunity to change into the favourite, conservative François Fillon.
Burge was as soon as near Fillon however has since grown distant: he accuses the previous prime minister of being impolite and petty. So he revealed to reporters the truth that he had given Fillon two very costly fits as presents.
Fillon campaigned on integrity, however he by no means recovered. He was later convicted of providing a pretend parliamentary place to his British spouse.
However Africa was Burge’s favourite.
He mirrored that whereas the corruption at France’s African core was incorrect, the system of the time introduced stability and connections, usually private, between French and African leaders.
As we speak, this case has disappeared.
France’s picture in its former colonies is deteriorating and its affect is waning. Witness the current retreat from former navy bases in Mali and Niger.
“I notice with unhappiness the breakdown in France’s relations with the African continent,” Bourget stated.
“However it’s too simple to place all of the blame on France…Africa has globalized. France has been unable to adapt to this new reality. And it retains making the identical mistake: vanity.
