ACCOUNTABILITY FROM TWO PRESIDENTS - FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES: 2021 VERSIONS OF ACCOUNTABILITY.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                           BY

 

                                                            Patrick Olufemi Adelusi PhD

                                      John & James Associates (Bilingual Policy Scientists)

                                                     London. United Kingdom

                                                     patrickadelusi@jjassociates.org.uk

 http://www.olufemiadelusi.blogspot.co.uk/

                                    www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-olufemi-adelusi-a2139a76

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I-                ABSTRACT

 When the January 6^th 2021 rampage against the Capitol Building hosting the Congress, Legislative arm of the United States took place under the watchful eyes of the obviously lame duck President Donald Trump on his way out, it shook the country and the whole world. That a Commander-in- Chief President Donald Trump will encourage a domestic terrorist attack against his country’s Legislative arm of government hosting his Vice President at that point in time leaves everyone shocked. That the mental health of President Donald Trump the US President was never questioned leaves more to be desired. Some members of his Republican Party paid allegiance to him and his monumental lie about winning an election which he lost by a landslide. The opposition Democratic Party called for bipartisan demand for accountability from the President. His party members doggedly refused to employ the main instrument for demanding that accountability which is the instrument of impeachment. Their argument being that President Donald Trump the US President was on his way out of office. Accountability was the key thing involved here. On the other side of the Atlantic, the former President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012) was accused of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced to 3 years in prison, two suspended, after being found guilty of attempting to bribe a judge. A Paris court heard that he used a mobile phone and a false name to gather confidential information from a judge. Here is a country dropping her convention that the country’s chief executive is above the law. In this preliminary study, these two cases are interesting to review. The underline factor is that the accountability issue is coming on 2021. More intriguing, in the early quarter of the year. To help our understanding, we are carrying out our tasks along 4 sections. namely, Section one -Abstracts, Section two- Introduction, Section three -Accountability from two Presidents: Cases of France and the US and Section four- Conclusion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

II-            INTRODUCTION

Democracy’s major pillar is the accountability of leaders to the electorate that elected them. Take away accountability, you are left with dictatorship. Leaders that take decisions without considering accountability. Another word for it is impunity. US President Trump encouraged resurrection against the Federal Government of which he is the head simply because he lost a free, fair, and well-organized elections in a landslide. There are sanctions in the statue book, the US constitution. Debates were on; should a lame duck President on his way out of the office, be impeached with additional sanctions of future inability of participating in Political office? January 6, 2021storming of the Capitol Building at the behest of Donald Trump qualified as impeachable offence and gross misconduct under the US Constitution.

This study examines two old democracies facing implementation of the accountability clause of their democratic charter. France seems to have modified her age-old practices of having their Presidents immune from prosecutions to after office loss of immunity from prosecutions. Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy is reportedly not to be the only former French President to have been charged to court. That shows that the accountability clause is working well. There are obviously no controversies about the process and the actual events. The other interesting case study is that of former US President Donald Trump. He left office January 20, 2021.Charges brought against him were conducted within the last few days to his departure and immediately as he left the office. This situation gave rise to controversies over the appropriateness of the accountability clause.

In this preliminary study, these two cases are interesting to review. The underline factor is that the accountability issue is coming on 2021. More intriguing, in the early quarter of the year. To help our understanding, we are carrying out our tasks along 4 sections. Namely, Section one -Abstracts, Section two- Introduction, Section three -Accountability from two Presidents: Cases of France and the US and Section four- Conclusion.

 

 

 

 

 

III-         ACCOUNTABILITY FROM TWO PRESIDENTS: CASES OF FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 

 

France seems to have modified her age-old practices of having their Presidents immune from prosecutions to after office loss of immunity from prosecutions. Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy is reportedly not to be the only former French President to have been charged to court. That shows that the accountability clause is working well. There are obviously no controversies about the process and the actual events. The other interesting case study is that of former US President Donald Trump. He left office January 20, 2021.Charges brought against him were conducted within the last few days to his departure and immediately as he left the office. This situation gave rise to controversies over the appropriateness of the accountability clause.

The US constitution made provisions for the accountability of its President. A practical understanding of these provisions relates to checking the Executive branch headed by the President by the Congress. The House of Representatives kicked off the accountability can with regards to President Donald Trump this January 2021. The lame duck President Donald Trump waiting for an end to his 4-year tenure on January 20, 2021, was accused of instigating the insurrection against the members of the Congress. The Congress was holding a constitutional assignment on the 2020 General President Elections with the Electoral College component of it. The Senate is required under the constitution to formally ratify results of the votes earned by both President Donald and his challenger Vice-President Joe Biden. The ratification being a formality, as Vice President, Joe Biden Jnr. had won more Electoral College votes than President Trump; 306 votes for Biden to 232 votes for Trump. While, total general votes for Biden were 80,002,083 million to Trump’s 73,872,609 million votes.

As the exercise for the ratification of these votes by the Senate, presided over by Vice President Pence was in progress, hooligans, domestic terrorists stormed the Congressional building referred to as the Capitol. Doors and windows were vandalised, offices of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and other offices were turned upside down. There were threats issued and, in the melee, about 5 persons inclusive of police officers died. The lame duck President Donald Trump was caught on video broadcast shortly before the January 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol building by the domestic terrorists later identified as Trump supporters, making a speech like a rally cry urging them to carry out the ‘abomination’. A Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces ‘commanding’ domestic terrorists to display terrorism against an important institution of the government of the United States of America.

On record, the House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump as the first leg of the Congressional accountability of the President. The second leg took place shortly after the lame duck President was eased off at the expiration of his tenure. In the Senate where the second leg of the Congressional accountability took place, the votes were 53 votes for impeachment to 47 votes against impeachment. By US constitutional provisions, only a 2/3 majority can fully impeach their President and ban him from any further future public office. The implication of these results is that now former President Donald Trump was unsuccessfully impeached. Majority of the Republican Party Senators voted against his impeachment.

 

IV-         CONCLUSION

Former one term President of France in the person of Nicholas Paul Stephane Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa 66 years, might have nursed an ambition to make a comeback as Presidential candidate again. This ambition disappeared on the first of March 2021 as he was sentenced to three years in jail, he became the second former President of France to suffer the same fate. The two of them were suspended for corruption. Indeed, it has been reported as a legal landmark for post-war France. Another former French President that was sentenced to jail too was Jacques Chirac in 2011. His offence was arranging bogus jobs at Paris City Hall for allies when he was Paris mayor. The accountability of French President is working. There are no Political party opposing it course. Until the Trump Republican Party appeared in the US, all Political Parties- Democratic and Republican alike have always supported and embrace fully the provisions of the constitution on accountability of the country’s President. The same cannot be said of the 2021 exercise.

Finally, democracy has two main pillars in its definition, free and fair choice of people by the people for the people. Secondly, accountability by the elected to the electors. The moment the accountability clause begins to be put under strain, the concept and practices of democracy no longer hold sway in the country. The US and France represented two different interpretations of the accountability of their presidents during the year 2021.