There are concerns however as to if the trial can begin after a medical report found that Mr Chirac suffers from memory lapses.

Mr Chirac, 78, denies the charges and appealed to the court to allow his lawyers to represent him. He is the first French leader to stand trial since World War 2, when Marshal Philippe Petain, leader of the collaborationist wartime regime, was convicted of treason.

Chirac is accused of two of counts of paying members of his Rally for the Republic (RPR) party for municipal jobs that did not actually exist. If found guilty, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, as well as a fine of 150,000 euros, (£131,000).

The first count Mr Chirac is accused of is related to embezzlement and breach of trust, which relates to the 21 ‘ghost jobs’. The second count resulted from a separate investigation in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, involving an illegal conflict of interest relating to seven of these ‘ghost jobs’.

Although these rumours began a long time ago, as President, Chirac was immune from prosecution from 1995 to 2007. The trial finally began in March, but on the second day his lawyer challenged the two cases being brought together, arguing that the statute of limitations had expired in the first case.

France’s highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation, later ruled that challenge was invalid.

The latest stall in the trial relates to Mr Chirac’s state of mind: a medical report was sent to the judge recommending that he be excused from attending court, because he cannot reliably answer questions relating to past events.

Today (Monday), Judge Dominique Pauthe is expected to make a response to the medical report: he can either drop the case, postpone it or seek further medical opinion.