One to watch - 28/05/2009

Eva Joly, France

Eva Joly, the Norwegian-born campaigning magistrate, famous for uncovering corruption in France is standing alongside another fearless crusader, the 1968 student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit on the green ticket.

"We are in great need of a clean economy in every possible term," says Joly, who exposed the bribes taken by several French government ministers and business leaders in the Elf scandal in the 1990s. Ms Clean, as the French media call her, was even the subject of a film by Claude Chabrol, Drunk On Power, in which she was played by Isabelle Huppert,

Joly recently attacked President Sarkozy's reforms of the legal system, which would do away with examining magistrates like her who are free to investigate the government or big business. "The French justice system has been left to drift," Joly said. She said she was "relieved" by Rachida Dati's imminent departure as French justice minister. Dati, who ironically seemed certain to be elected as an MEP, had been charged with the most radical reform of the French judicial system in decades.

Joly returned to investigate corruption in her native Denmark in 2002 and more recently was brought in to look into the virtual bankrupcy of the Icelandic government. But the environment remains her main focus. And she insists that Europe is the best platform on which to take action.

Other candidates to watch:

Comments

Helge Dyvik

- 05/06/2009

"her native Denmark" should be "her native Norway".