Chirac furious over secret funds probe

French President Jacques Chirac has responded angrily to a prosecutor’s ruling that he can be questioned as a witness in a scandal involving cash payments for personal trips while he was mayor.

In yet another development in the snowballing investigation, Chirac’s wife Bernadette and daughter Claude were summoned to appear later this month in the case, LCI television reported.

A Paris prosecutor yesterday gave the go-ahead for a judicial panel to summon Chirac for questioning, according to judicial officials.

The decision by the prosecutor, Jean-Pierre Dintilhac, does not necessarily mean Chirac will be questioned.

The prosecutor said he was asking the three judges in charge of the case to rule on whether they legally can question the President, given his presidential immunity.

Although the panel can decline to question Chirac, Dintilhac’s ruling, which was not made public, drew a sharp response from the presidential palace.

‘‘The President cannot be summoned,’’ Chirac’s office said in a statement. ‘‘This would be contrary to the principles of separation of powers as well as the continuity of the state.’’

Chirac’s party issued another angry reaction, accusing the prosecutor of having a political bias and acting with ‘‘stupefying stubbornness.’’

‘‘Jean-Pierre Dintilhac persists in his political attitude and pseudo-legal agitation which are entirely designed to stir up media attention about a procedure he knows is bound to fail,’’ said Michele Alliot-Marie, the head of Chirac’s Rally for the Republic party.

Dintilhac’s decision came in defiance of his superior, Jean-Louis Nadal of the Paris appeals court, who a day earlier cast doubt on whether Chirac could legally be called as an ‘‘assisted witness.’’

An assisted witness is a legal category in France that allows for questioning without the threat of being placed under investigation.

Both Nadal and Dintilhac say they will appeal if they disagree with the panel’s eventual ruling.

The case centres on the use of some 2.4 million francs (£230,000) in state funds for 20 trips by Chirac’s family and others from 1992-95, while he was Paris mayor.

It emerged as investigators pursue a broader probe, also stemming from Chirac’s term.

Dozens of people have been placed under investigation in separate cases involving a phoney jobs scheme and an alleged system of kickbacks from public works contractors. Chirac has refused to appear as a witness in the case involving the alleged kickbacks.

The President has not personally responded in public to the allegations involving cash payments for trips.

But his office has said the money for the plane tickets came from a special fund allotted to prime ministers, which is not subject to official oversight.

Chirac served as Prime Minister from 1986-1988, but the case involves trips he took when he was no longer Prime Minister. His office has not explained that discrepancy.

The President is expected to be questioned on the subject on Saturday, when he gives a traditional Bastille Day interview on national television.

In the National Assembly on Monday, Chirac’s Rally for the Republic party and two opposition parties called on Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to freeze the so-called ‘‘secret funds’’ for the rest of the year. Jospin has refused.