I tried once again with `footer="<div ng-include="\'path to footer partial file\'"></div>`, it works, but this throws the digest cycles expections. I created a simple sample to try to use $compile inside a link function of an element containing ng-include, and it worked. I was able to get it to work using timeouts (arggggggl), but the same code didn't work on production then.
Also, played with `$includeContentLoaded` of ng-include and `onload` parameter, but was not able to rectify the situation.

To conclude: very strange behaviour I don't understand. I propose to keep the footer html in javascript for now. It works without troubles.