Tapie to quit French assembly seat as film opens .
PARIS 1996-08-26
Former businessman and soccer boss Bernard Tapie said that he would give up his seat in the National Assembly by Wednesday , the day a film by Claude Lelouche in which he stars opens in France .
" I will no longer be deputy by the time the film opens , " he said in a broadcast interview .
" Just about , " he told Europe 1 radio when asked whether he had sent his letter of resignation to Assembly speaker Philippe Seguin .
A Seguin spokeswoman confirmed that no letter or call had yet been received .
Tapie , 53 , was resigning just ahead of expected government action to eject him from the Assembly following a finding by the Supreme Court that he was bankrupt and thus ineligible for public office for a five-year period .
Tapie , the target of a blizzard of legal actions over his now-destroyed business empire and the Marseille soccer team he once ran , has a starring role in Lelouche 's " Homme , femmes : mode d'emploi " ( Men , women : instructions for use ) .
He plays a power-hungry lawyer in the movie described as " a tender and cruel comedy " by Lelouche , who is making his 35th film .
" I have paid too dearly for mixing two careers , " Tapie said . "
In France , you cannot be a film artist and a national politician at the same time .
That is why I will no longer be deputy by the time the film opens . "
Justice Minister Jacques Toubon began last month the formal process of ejecting Tapie from the French parliament as well as stripping him of his seat in the European parliament .
The French procedure was expected to be completed before October 2 , when the National Assembly is to reconvene after a summer break , but the European procedure was expected to take longer .
Tapie 's lawyer has said he intends to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in an effort to prevent or delay the loss of his European seat .
But such an appeal , even if the court were to accept the case , which it is not obliged to do , would not suspend enforcement of the French judgement against him .
Tapie faces a probable spell in prison after he loses his parliamentary immunity , since two appeal courts have confirmed jail sentences of eight and six months against him for tax fraud and rigging a soccer match .
He is appealing in both cases to the Supreme Court .