Jacques Chirac was a former president of France who served as mayor of Paris before entering the presidency. He became the first former president in modern times to be tried in court, in a case over "fake jobs" at the Paris town hall during his stint as mayor. In 2011 he was found guilty and given a suspended sentence. His successor Nicolas Sarkozy was later also convicted and jailed, continuing a pattern of judicial accountability for French ex-presidents.
momentum, n.: What you give a person when they are going away.