Jacques Chirac

"Chirac" redirects here. For other uses, see Chirac (disambiguation).

Jacques Chirac
22nd President of the French Republic 5th President of French Fifth Republic Co-Prince of Andorra
In office 17 May 1995 – 16 May 2007
Prime Minister	Alain Juppé, Lionel Jospin, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominique de Villepin
Preceded by	François Mitterrand
Succeeded by	Nicolas Sarkozy
Mayor of Paris
In office 20 March 1977 – 16 May 1995
Preceded by	Post abolishment
Succeeded by	Jean Tiberi
159th Prime Minister of France 10th Prime Minister of French Fifth Republic
In office 27 March 1986 – 10 May 1988
President	François Mitterrand
Preceded by	Laurent Fabius
Succeeded by	Michel Rocard
155th Prime Minister of France 6th Prime Minister of French Fifth Republic
In office 27 May 1974 – 26 August 1976
President	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Preceded by	Pierre Messmer
Succeeded by	Raymond Barre
Minister of the Interior
In office 27 February 1974 – 28 May 1974
Prime Minister	Pierre Messmer
Preceded by	Raymond Marcellin
Succeeded by	Michel Poniatowski
Personal details
Born	(1932-11-29) November 29, 1932 Paris, France
Political party	UDR, RPR and UMP
Spouse	Bernadette Chirac
Occupation	Civil servant

Jacques René Chirac (born 29 November 1932) is a French politician and a former President of France. He served from May 17 1995 until May 16 2007 and was re-elected in 2002. As President he was also an ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra and Grand Master of the French Légion d'honneur.

After completing his studies at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris and the École Nationale d'Administration, Jacques Chirac began his career as a high-level civil servant, and soon entered politics. He subsequently occupied various senior positions, including Minister of Agriculture, Prime Minister, [[Mayor of Paris]], and finally President of France.

His internal policies included lower tax rates, the removal of price controls, strong punishment for crime and terrorism; and business privatization. He has also argued for more socially responsible economic policies, and was elected in 1995 after campaigning on a platform of healing the "social rift" (fracture sociale). His economic policies at various times also included both laissez-faire and dirigiste (state directed) ideas.

Chirac was the second-longest serving President of France (two full terms, first seven years and second five), behind Francois Mitterrand. He and his predecessor were also the only presidents to serve two full terms in the Élysée Palace.

Chirac is the only person to have served twice as Prime Minister under the Fifth Republic.

Early Life

Born on 29 November 1932 in the Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire clinic (fifth district of Paris), Jacques René Chirac is the son of Abel François Chirac (1893–1968), a company administrator, and Marie-Louise Valette (1902–1973), a housewife. Both families were of peasant stock — despite the fact his two grandfathers were teachers - from Sainte-Féréole in Corrèze. According to Chirac, his name "originates from the langue d'oc, that of the troubadours, therefore that of poetry". He is a Roman Catholic.

The young Chirac was an only child (his elder sister, Jacqueline, died in infancy before his birth), and was educated in Paris at the Lycée Carnot and at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. After his baccalauréat, he did a three month stint as a sailor on a coal-transporting ship.

In 1956, he married Bernadette Chodron de Courcel, with whom he later had two daughters, Laurence (born 4 March 1958) and Claude (14 January 1962). Claude has long been his public relations assistant and personal advisor, while Laurence, who suffered from anorexia nervosa in her youth, does not participate in the political activities of her father. Chirac is the grandfather of Martin Rey-Chirac by the relationship of Claude with French judoka Thierry Rey.

Jacques and Bernadette Chirac have also a foster daughter, Anh Dao Traxel.

Early political career (1950s–1973)

Inspired by General Charles de Gaulle to enter public life, Chirac continued pursuing a civil service career in the 1950s. During this period, he joined the French Communist Party; he sold copies of L'Humanité, and took part in meetings of a communist cell. In 1950, he signed the Soviet-inspired Stockholm Appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons–enough for him to be questioned when he applied for his first visa to the United States. In 1953, after graduating from Sciences Po, he attended Harvard University's summer school before entering the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA), the elite, competitive-entrance college that trains France's top civil servants, in 1957.

Chirac trained as a reserve officer in armoured cavalry at Saumur, from which he was ranked first among his year's students. He then volunteered for fighting in the Algerian war of independence, using personal relations to be sent there despite the reservations of his superiors, who suspected him of Communism and did not want to make him an officer.

After leaving ENA in 1959, he became a civil servant in the prestigious Court of Auditors and rose rapidly through the ranks. As early as April 1962, Chirac was appointed head of the personal staff of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. This appointment launched Chirac's political career.

Pompidou considered Chirac his protégé and referred to him as "my bulldozer" for his skill at getting things done. The nickname "Le Bulldozer" caught on in French political circles. Chirac still maintains this reputation. "Chirac cuts through the crap and comes straight to the point...It's refreshing, although you have to put your seat belt on when you work with him", said an anonymous British diplomat in 1995.

At Pompidou's suggestion, Chirac ran as a Gaullist for a seat in the National Assembly in 1967. He was elected deputy for Corrèze département, the place of his family's origin but a stronghold of the left. This surprising victory in the context of a Gaullist ebb permitted him to enter the government as state secretary (vice-minister) of social affairs. Although more of a "Pompidolian" than a "Gaullist", Chirac was well-situated in de Gaulle's entourage, being related by marriage to the general's sole companion at the time of the Appeal of 18 June 1940.

In 1968, when student and worker strikes rocked France (see May 1968), Chirac played a central role in negotiating a truce. Then, as state secretary of economy (1968-1971), he had worked closely with Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who headed the ministry of economy and finance. The young technocrat from ENA then rose to fame; Chirac was caricatured as the archetypal brilliant ENA graduate in an Asterix graphic novel.

After some months in the ministry of relations with Parliament, Chirac's first high-level post came in 1972 when he became minister of agriculture and rural development under his mentor Georges Pompidou, who had been elected president in 1969. Chirac quickly earned a reputation as a champion of French farmers' interests. As minister of agriculture, Chirac first attracted international attention when he assailed U.S., West German, and European Commission agricultural policies that conflicted with French interests.

In 1974, Chirac was appointed Minister of the Interior. From March 1974, he was entrusted by President Pompidou with preparations for the presidential election then scheduled for 1976. However, these elections were brought forward because of Pompidou's sudden death on 2 April.

Chirac wanted to rally Gaullists behind Prime minister Pierre Messmer, yet this was to be all in vain. Jacques Chaban-Delmas announced his candidacy, in spite of the disapproval of the "Pompidolians". Chirac and others published the call of the 43 in favor of Giscard d'Estaing, the leader of the non-Gaullist part of the parliamentary majority. Giscard d'Estaing was elected as Pompidou's successor after France's most competitive election campaign in years. In return, the new president chose Chirac to lead the cabinet.

Prime Minister, 1974–76

File:PMChirac.jpg

On May 29, 1974 Jacques Chirac (left) replaced Pierre Messmer (right) as prime minister on the steps of the Hôtel Matignon.

When Giscard became president, he nominated Chirac as prime minister on 27 May 1974 in order to reconcile the "Giscardian" and "non-Giscardian" factions of the parliamentary majority. At the relatively young age of 41, Chirac stood out as the very model of the jeunes loups ("young wolves") of French political life. But he was faced with the hostility of the "Barons of Gaullism" who considered him a traitor for his role during the previous presidential campaign. In December 1974, he took the lead of the Gaullist party Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR) against the will of its more senior personalities.

As prime minister, Chirac quickly set about persuading the Gaullists that, despite the social reforms proposed by President Giscard, the basic tenets of Gaullism, such as national and European independence, would be retained.

Chirac was advised by Pierre Juillet and Marie-France Garaud, two former advisers of Pompidou. These two organized the campaign against Chaban-Delmas in 1974. They advocated a clash with Giscard d'Estaing because they thought his policy bewildered the conservative electorate. Citing Giscard's unwillingness to give him authority, Chirac resigned as Prime Minister in 1976. He proceeded to build up his political base among France's several conservative parties, with a goal of reconstituting the Gaullist UDR into a neo-Gaullist group, the Rally for the Republic (RPR).

The Osirak Controversy

In December 1974, Saddam Hussein (then vice-president of Iraq, but de facto dictator) invited Chirac to Baghdad for an official visit. Chirac accepted and visited Iraq in 1975. Saddam Hussein approved a deal granting French oil companies a number of privileges plus a 23 per cent share of Iraqi oil . In a declaration on September 5, 1974, Chirac said about Saddam Hussein:

You are my personal friend. Let me assure you of my esteem, consideration and bond. (Vous êtes mon ami personnel. Vous êtes assuré de mon estime, de ma considération et de mon affection.)

As part of this deal, France sold Iraq the Osirak MTR nuclear reactor, a type designed to test nuclear materials.

The Osirak reactor was later bombed by the Israeli Air Force, provoking considerable anger from French officials and the United Nations Security Council. The facility's intended use as a basis for nuclear weapons was confirmed after the 1991 Gulf War .

Mayor of Paris (1977−1995)

After his departure from the cabinet, Chirac wanted to take the leadership over the right in order to accede to the presidency. The RPR was conceived like an electoral machine against President Giscard d'Estaing. Paradoxically, Chirac benefited from Giscard's decision to create a function of mayor in Paris, which had been cancelled since the 1871 Commune, the Third Republic (1871-1940) fearing the power given by the municipal control of the capital. In 1977, Chirac stood as candidate against Michel d'Ornano, a close friend of the president, and he won. As mayor of Paris, Chirac's political influence grew. He held this strategic position until 1995.

Chirac supporters point out that, as mayor, he provided for programs to help the elderly, people with disabilities, and single mothers, while providing incentives for businesses to stay in Paris. His opponents contend that he installed clientelist policies, and favored office buildings at the expense of housing, driving rents high and worsening the situation of workers.

In addition, Chirac has been named in several cases of alleged corruption and abuse that occurred during his office term as mayor, some of which have already led to felony convictions against other politicians and aides. However, a controversial judicial decision from 1999 grants him virtual immunity, as current president of France. He has refused to testify on these matters, arguing that this would be incompatible with his presidential functions. Interrogations concerning the running of Paris's city hall, the number of whose municipal employees jumped by 25% from 1977 to 1995 (with 2000 of them, out of a total of approximatively 35000, coming from the Corrèze region where Chirac held his deputy seat), as well as the lack of transparency concerning accounts of public sales (marchés publics) or of the communal debt, have been pushed away by the legal impossibility to question him as current president. The conditions of the privatisation of the Parisian hydraulic network, acquired very cheaply by the Générale and the Lyonnaise des Eaux, then directed by Jérôme Monod, a close friend of Chirac, have also been criticized. Furthermore, the satirical newspaper Le Canard enchaîné revealed the incredibly high amount of "food expenses" paid by the Parisian municipality (€15 million a year according to the Canard), expenses which were managed by Roger Romani (who would have destroyed all archives of the period 1978–1993 during night expeditions in 1999-2000). Thousands of people were invited each year to the Paris town-hall receptions, while many political, media and artistic personalities were graciously hosted in the private flats owned by Paris (See Corruption scandals in the Paris region for further information.)

When he leaves office, his official immunity ends and he then can be investigated on the pending corruption allegations [3]

File:Chirac2.GIF

Chirac during the press conference of the closing down of the Renault factory in Vilvoorde (Belgium) in 1997 [2].

Struggle for the right-wing leadership

In 1978, he attacked the pro-European policy of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (VGE), and made a nationalist turn with the December 1978 Call of Cochin, initiated by his counsellors Marie-France Garaud and Pierre Juillet, which had first been called by Pompidou. Hospitalized in Cochin hospital after a crash, he then declared that "as always about the drooping of France, the pro-foreign party acts with its peaceable and reassuring voice". Furthermore, he appointed Ivan Blot, an intellectual who would join later, for some time, the National Front, as director of his campaigns for the 1979 European election. After the poor results of the election, Chirac broke with Garaud and Juillet. Nevertheless, the already-established rivalry with Giscard d'Estaing became even more intense. Although it has been often interpreted by historians as the struggle between two rivals French right-wing family, the Bonapartist one, represented by Chirac, and the Orleanist one, represented by VGE, both figures in fact were member of the Liberal, Orleanist tradition, according to historian Alain-Gérard Slama. But the eviction of the Gaullist Barons and of President VGE convinced Chirac to assume a strong neo-Gaullist stance.

Chirac made his first run for president against Giscard d'Estaing in the 1981 election, thus splitting the centre-right vote. He was eliminated in the first round (18%) then, he reluctantly supported Giscard in the second round. Indeed, he refused to give instructions to the RPR voters but said that he supported the incumbent president "in a private capacity," which was almost like a de facto support of the Socialist Party's (PS) candidate, François Mitterrand, who was elected by a broad majority.

Giscard has always blamed Chirac for his defeat. He was told by Mitterrand, before his death, that the latter had dined with Chirac before the election. Chirac told the Socialist candidate that he wanted to "get rid of Giscard". In his memoirs, Giscard wrote that between the two rounds, he phoned the RPR headquarters. He passed himself off as a right-wing voter by changing his voice. The RPR employee advised him "certainly do not vote Giscard!". After 1981, the relationship between the two men became somewhat tense, with Giscard, even though he was in the same government coalition as Chirac, taking opportunities to criticize Chirac's actions.

After the May 1981 presidential election, the right also lost the same year the legislative election. However, Giscard being knocked out, Chirac appeared as the leader of the right-wing opposition. Due to his protest against the economic policy of the Socialist government, he progressively aligned himself with the prevailing liberal opinions, even if these did not correspond with the Gaullist doctrine. While the far-right National Front grew, taking in particular advantage of a proportional representation electoral law, he signed an electoral platform with the Giscardian (and more or less Christian Democrat) party Union for French Democracy (UDF).

First "Cohabitation" (1986-1988) and "desert crossing"

When the RPR/UDF right-wing coalition won a slight majority in the National Assembly in the 1986 election, Mitterrand (PS) appointed Chirac prime minister. This inedit power-sharing arrangement, known as cohabitation, gave Chirac the lead in domestic affairs. However, it is generally conceded that Mitterrand used the areas granted to the President of the Republic, or "reserved domains" of the Presidency - defence and foreign affairs - to belittle his Prime Minister.

Chirac's Second Ministry

(March 20 1986–May 12 1988)

• Jacques Chirac - Prime Minister
• Jean-Bernard Raimond - Minister of Foreign Affairs
• André Giraud - Minister of Defence
• Charles Pasqua - Minister of the Interior
• Édouard Balladur - Minister of Economy, Finance, and Privatization
• Alain Madelin - Minister of Industry, Tourism, Posts, and Telecommunications
• Philippe Séguin - Minister of Employment and Social Affairs
• Albin Chalandon - Minister of Justice
• René Monory - Minister of National Education
• François Léotard - Minister of Culture and Communications
• François Guillaume - Minister of Agriculture
• Bernard Pons - Minister of Overseas Departments and Territories
• Pierre Méhaignerie - Minister of Housing, Equipment, Regional Planning, and Transport
• André Rossinot - Minister of Relations with Parliament
• Michel Aurillac - Minister of Cooperation

Chirac's cabinet sold a lot of public companies, renewing with the liberalization initiated under Laurent Fabius's Socialist government (1984-86 - in particular with Fabius' privatization of the audiovisual sector, leading to the creation of Canal +), and abolished the solidarity tax on wealth (ISF), a symbolic tax on very high resources decided by Mitterrand's government. Elsewhere, the plan for university reform (plan Devaquet) caused a crisis in 1986 when a young man named Malik Oussekine was killed by the police, leading to huge demonstrations and the proposal's withdrawal. It has been said during other estudiantine crisis that this event strongly affected Jacques Chirac, hereafter careful about possible police violence during such demonstrations (i.e. maybe explaining part of the decision to "promulgate without applying" the First Employment Contract (CPE) after large students demonstrations against it).

One of his first act concerning foreign policies was to call back to affairs Jacques Foccart (1913-1997), who had been de Gaulle's and his successors' leading counsellor for African matters, called by journalist Stephen Smith the "father of all "networks" on the continent, at the time [in 1986] aged 72." Jacques Foccart, who had also co-founded the Gaullist Service d'Action Civique (SAC, dissolved by Mitterrand in 1982) along with Charles Pasqua, and who was a key component of the "Françafrique" system, was again called to the Elysée Palace when Chirac won the 1995 presidential election.

Furthermore, confronted to anti-colonialist movements in New Caledonia, Prime minister Chirac ordered a military intervention against the separatists in the Ouvéa cave, leading to several tragic deaths.

He allegedly refused any alliance with the National Front, the far-right party of Jean-Marie Le Pen .

1988 presidential elections and afterwards

Chirac sought the presidency and ran against Mitterrand for a second time in the 1988 election. He obtained 20% of the vote in the first round, but lost the second with only 46%. He resigned from the cabinet and the right lost the next legislative election.

For the first time, his leadership over the RPR was challenged. Charles Pasqua and Philippe Séguin criticized his abandonment of Gaullist doctrines. On the right, a new generation of politicians, the "renovation men", accused Chirac and Giscard of being responsible for the electoral defeats.

While he still was mayor of Paris (since 1977), Chirac went to Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) where he supported President Houphouët-Boigny (1960-1993), although the latter was being called a "thief" by the local population. Chirac then declared that multipartism was a "kind of luxury."

Nevertheless, the right won the 1993 legislative election. Chirac announced that he did not want to come back as prime minister, suggesting the appointment of Edouard Balladur, who had promised that he would not run for the presidency against Chirac. However, benefiting from positive polls, Balladur decided to be a presidential candidate, with the support of a majority of right-wing politicians. Chirac broke at that time with a number of friends and allies, including Charles Pasqua, Nicolas Sarkozy, etc., who supported Balladur's candidacy. A small group of "fidels" would remain with him, including Alain Juppé, Jean-Louis Debré, etc. Juppe, however, became later a minister of the Fillon government appointed by Sarkozy (when he became president), therefore he later served Sarkozy.

First term as president (1995-2002)

Jacques Chirac with Bill Clinton outside Élysée Palace.

During the 1995 presidential campaign Chirac criticized the "sole thought" (pensée unique) represented by his challenger on the right and promised to reduce the "social fracture," placing himself more to the center and thus forcing Balladur to radicalize himself. Ultimately, he obtained more votes than Balladur in the first round (20.8%), and then defeated the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin in the second round (52.6%).

Chirac was elected on a platform of tax cuts and job programs, but his policies did little to ease the labour strikes during his first months in office. On the domestic front, neo-liberal economic austerity measures introduced by Chirac and his conservative prime minister Alain Juppé, including budgetary cutbacks, proved highly unpopular. At about the same time, it became apparent that Juppé and others had obtained preferential conditions for public housing, as well as other perks. At the year's end Chirac faced major workers' strikes which turned itself, in November-December 1995, in a general strike, one of the largest since May 1968. The demonstrations were largely pitted against Juppé's plan on the reform of pensions, and led to the dismissal of the latter.

Shortly after taking office, Chirac – undaunted by international protests by environmental groups – insisted upon the resumption of nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia in 1995, a few months before illegally signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Reacting to criticism, Chirac said, "You only have to look back at 1935...There were people then who were against France arming itself, and look what happened." On February 1 1996, Chirac announced that France had ended "once and for all" its nuclear testing, intending to accede to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Elected as President of the Republic, he refused to discuss the existence of French military bases in Africa, despite requests by the Ministry of Defense and the Quai d'Orsay (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). French Army thus remained in Côte d'Ivoire as well as in Omar Bongo's Gabon.

Trying to firm up his party's government coalition, in 1997 Chirac dissolved parliament for early legislative elections in a gamble designed to bolster support for his conservative economic program. But instead, it created an uproar, and his power was weakened by the subsequent backlash. The Socialist Party (PS), joined by other parties on the left, soundly defeated Chirac's conservative allies, forcing Chirac into a new period of cohabitation with Jospin as prime minister (1997-2002), which lasted five years.

Cohabitation significantly weakened the power of Chirac's presidency. The French president, by a constitutional convention, only controls foreign and military policy— and even then, allocation of funding is under the control of Parliament and under the significant influence of the prime minister. Short of dissolving parliament and calling for new elections, the president was left with little power to influence public policy regarding crime, the economy, and public services. Chirac seized the occasion to periodically criticize Jospin's government.

Nevertheless, his position was weakened by scandals about the financing of RPR by Paris municipality. In 2001, the left, represented by Bertrand Delanoë (PS), won over the majority in the town council of the capital. Jean Tiberi himself, friend of Chirac and his successor at the Paris townhall, was forced to resign after having been put under investigations in June 1999 on charges of trafic d'influences in the HLMs of Paris affairs (related to the illegal financing of the RPR). Tiberi was finally expelled from the RPR, Chirac's party, on October 12, 2000, declaring to the Figaro magazine on November 18, 2000: "Jacques Chirac is not my friend anymore." After the publication of the Méry video-tape by Le Monde on September 22, 2000, in which Jean-Claude Méry, in charge of the RPR's financing, directly accused Chirac of organizing the network, and of having been physically present on October 5, 1986, when Méry gave in cash 5 millions Francs, which came from companies who had benefited from state deals, to Michel Roussin, personal secretary (directeur de cabinet) of Chirac, Chirac refused to follow up his summons by judge Eric Halphen, and the highest echelons of the French justice declared that he could not been inculpated while in functions.

During his two terms, he has been accused of wastefulness:

- He has increased the Elysee Palace's total budget by 105% (currently 90 million euros, whereas 20 years ago it was the equivalent of 43.7 million euros).

- He has doubled the number of presidential cars - nowadays there are 61 cars and 7 scooters in the Palace's garage.

- He has hired 145 extra employees - the total number of the people he employed simultaneously was 963.

- He has spent 1 million euros per year on drinks purchased for guests visiting the Palace.

Defense policy

As the Supreme Commander of the French armed forces, he has reduced the French military budget, as did his predecessor. It now accounts for 3% of GDP . In 1998 the aircraft carrier Clemenceau was prematurely decommissioned after 37 years of service, and another aircraft carrier was decommissioned 2 years later after 37 years of service, leaving the French Navy with no aircraft carrier until 2001, when Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier was commissioned . He has also reduced expenditures on nuclear weapons and the French nuclear arsenal, which now numbers 350 warheads, while the Russian nuclear arsenal numbers 16000 warheads . He has also published a plan which assumes reducing the number of fighters the French military has by 30 .

Second term as president (2002-2007)

Main article: Jacques Chirac's second term as President of France

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Chirac with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Gerhard Schröder.

At the age of 69, Chirac faced his fourth presidential campaign in 2002. He was the first choice of fewer than one in five voters in the first round of voting of the presidential elections in April 2002. It had been expected that he would face incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin (PS) in the second round of elections; instead, Chirac faced controversial far right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen of the law-and-order, anti-immigrant National Front (FN), and so won re-election by a landslide (82%); all parties outside the National Front (except for Lutte ouvrière) had called for opposing Le Pen, even if it meant voting for Chirac. Slogans such as "vote for the crook, not for the fascist" or "vote with a clothespin on your nose" appeared, while huge demonstrations marked the period between the two electoral rounds in all of France.

Unpopularity

Chirac became increasingly unpopular during his second term. According to a July 2005 poll, 32% judged Jacques Chirac favorably and 63% unfavorably. In 2006, The Economist wrote that Chirac "is the most unpopular occupant of the Elysée Palace in the fifth republic's history."

Early term

As the left-wing Socialist Party was in thorough disarray following Jospin's defeat, Chirac reorganized politics on the right, establishing a new party — initially called the Union of the Presidential Majority, then the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). The RPR had broken down - a number of members had formed Eurosceptic breakaways. While the Giscardian liberals of the Union of French Democracy (UDF) had moved sharply to the right. The UMP won the parliamentary elections that followed the presidential poll with ease.

During an official visit to Madagascar on 21 July 2005, president Chirac described the repression of the 1947 Malagasy uprising, which left between 80,000 and 90,000 dead, as "unacceptable."

Despite past opposition to state intervention the Chirac government approved a 2.8 billion euro aid package to troubled manufacturing giant Alstom.[4] In October 2004, President Chirac signed a trade agreement with PRC President Hu Jintao where Alstom was given one billion euro in contracts and promises of furture investment in China.

Assassination attempt

While Jacques Chirac was reviewing troops in a motorcade such as this one on Bastille Day 2002, he was shot at by a bystander.

On July 14 2002, during Bastille Day celebrations, Chirac survived an assassination attempt by a lone gunman with a rifle hidden in a guitar case. The would-be assassin fired a shot toward the presidential motorcade, before being overpowered by bystanders. The gunman, Maxime Brunerie, underwent psychiatric testing; the violent far-right group with which he was associated, Unité Radicale was then administratively dissolved.

2005 referendum on the TCE

File:Chirac EU.jpg

Jacques Chirac giving a speech encouraging support of the European Constitution.

Further information: Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe

On May 29 2005, a referendum was held in France to decide whether the country should ratify the proposed treaty for a Constitution of the European Union (TCE). The result was a victory for the No campaign, with 55% of voters rejecting the treaty on a turnout of 69 per cent, dealing a devastating blow to Chirac and the UMP party, as well as to part of the center-left which had supported the TCE.

Foreign policy

Jacques Chirac with George W. Bush.

Along with Gerhard Schröder, Chirac emerged as a leading voice against the Bush administration's conduct towards Iraq. Despite intense US pressure, Chirac threatened to veto, at that given point, a resolution in the UN Security Council that would authorize the use of military force to rid Iraq of alleged weapons of mass destruction, and rallied other governments to his position. "Iraq today does not represent an immediate threat that justifies an immediate war," Chirac said on March 18 2003. Chirac was then the target of various American and British commentators supporting the decisions of Bush and Tony Blair. Current Prime minister Dominique de Villepin acquired much of his popularity for his speech done against the war at the United Nations (UN). However, following controversies concerning the CIA's black sites and extraordinary rendition program, the press revealed that French special services had cooperated with Washington in the same time that Villepin was countering US foreign policy at the UN headquarters in New York.

After Togo's leader Gnassingbé Eyadéma's death on February 5, 2005, who had reigned over the country during 38 years, taking advantage of the 1963 assassination of Sylvanus Olympio, Chirac gave him tribute and supported his son, Faure Gnassingbé, who has since succeeded to his father.

On January 19 2006, Chirac said that France was prepared to launch a nuclear strike against any country that sponsors a terrorist attack against French interests. He said his country's nuclear arsenal had been reconfigured to include the ability to make a tactical strike in retaliation for terrorism.

Chirac and George W. Bush during the 27th G8 summit, July 21 2001.

In July 2006, the G8 met to discuss international energy concerns. Despite the rising awareness of global warming issues, the G8 focuses on "energy security" issues. Chirac continues to be the voice within the G8 summit meetings to support international action to curb global warming and climate change concerns. Chirac warns that "humanity is dancing on a volcano" and calls for serious action by the world's leading industrialised nations.

2005 civil unrest and CPE protests

Further information: 2005 civil unrest in France and 2006 labour protests in France

Following major students protests in spring 2006, which succeeded to civil unrest in autumn 2005 following the death of two young boys in Clichy-sous-Bois, one of the poorest French commune located in Paris' suburbs, Chirac retracted the proposed First Employment Contract (CPE) by "promulgating [it] without applying it," an unheard-of — and, some claim, illegal — move destined to appease the protests while giving the appearance not to retract himself, and therefore to continue his support towards his Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.

The Clearstream affair

Further information: Clearstream

During April and May 2006, Chirac's administration was beset by a crisis as his chosen Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, was accused of asking General Rondot, a top level French spy, for a secret investigation into the latter's chief political rival, Nicolas Sarkozy in 2004. This matter has been called the (Second) Clearstream Affair. On May 10 2006, following a Cabinet meeting, Chirac made a rare television appearance to try to protect Villepin from the scandal and to debunk allegations that Chirac himself had set up a Japanese bank account containing 300 million francs in 1992 as Mayor of Paris. Chirac stated that "The Republic is not a dictatorship of rumors, a dictatorship of calumny." Some political commentators note that the president's authority and credibility is in serious decline due to this scandal and combined impact of the French voters rejection of the European Union constitution in May 2005 which Chirac had publicly championed.

Announcement of intention not to seek a third term

In a pre-recorded television broadcast aired on March 11, 2007, Jacques Chirac announced, in a widely-predicted move, that he would not choose to seek a third term as France's President. "Serving France, and serving peace, is what I have committed my whole life to," Chirac said, adding that he would find new ways to serve France after leaving office. He did not explain the reasons for his decision. Chirac did not, during the broadcast, endorse any of the candidates running for election, but did devote several minutes of his talk to a plea against extremist politics that was considered a thinly-disguised invocation to voters not to vote for Jean-Marie Le Pen and a recommendation to Nicolas Sarkozy not to orient his campaign so as to include themes traditionally associated with Mr. Le Pen.

Life after presidency

After presidency, he has become a lifetime member of the Constitutional Council of France. Whether or not he decides to participate is unclear. He will reside immediately after the next president's investiture in a 180 square meters duplex, located near the Louvre, and lent to him by the family of Rafic Hariri, the former Lebanese premier. During the Didier Schuller affair, the latter accused Hariri of having participated to the illegal funding of the RPR's political campaigns, but the justice closed the case without further investigations.

As former President he also received lifetime pension and personal security protection.

Impact on French popular culture

Because of Jacques Chirac's long career in visible government position, he has often been parodied or caricatured:

• Young Jacques Chirac is the basis of a character in an Astérix book: that of a young, dashing bureaucrat just out of the bureaucracy school, proposing methods to quell Gallic unrest to elderly, old-style Roman politicians.
• He was featured in Le Bêbête Show as an overexcited, jumpy character.
• Jacques Chirac is one favorite character of Les Guignols de l'Info, a satiric latex puppet show. He was once portrayed as a rather likeable, though overexcited, character; however, following the corruption allegations, he has been shown as a kind of dilettante and incompetent who pilfers public money and lies through his teeth. His character for a while developed a super hero alter ego, Super Menteur ("Super Liar") in order to get him out of embarrassing situations.
• Les Wampas, a French punk band, wrote the local hit Chirac en prison ("Chirac in jail").

Political offices held

• Member of the Sainte-Féréole (Corrèze) municipal council 1965-1977
• National Assembly Deputy for Corrèze (March to May 1967)
• State Secretary for Social Affairs 1967-1968
• Deputy for Corrèze (June to August 1968)
• Member of the Corrèze Conseil Général for the canton of Meymac 1968-1982
• State Secretary for the Economy and Finance 1968-1971
• President of the Corrèze Conseil Général 1970-1979
• Minister attached to the Prime Minister, with responsibility for relations with Parliament 1971-1972
• Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development 1972–1973
• Deputy for Corrèze 1973-1974
• Minister of the Interior 1974
• Prime Minister 1974-1976
• General Secretary of the Union of Democrats for the Republic 1974-1975
• Deputy for Corrèze 1976-1986
• President of Rally for the Republic 1976-1994
• Mayor of Paris 1977-1995
• Member of the European Parliament 1979-1980
• Prime Minister 1986-1988
• Deputy for Corrèze 1988-1995

Honours

• Grand-Croix de la Légion d'Honneur [5]
• Grand-Croix de l'Ordre National du Mérite
• "Croix de la Valeur Militaire"
• "Médaille de l'Aéronautique"
• Knight of the "Mérite agricole"
• Knight of the "Arts et des Lettres"
• Knight of the Dark Star (Bénin)
• Knight of the "Mérite Sportif"
• Grand-croix du Mérite de l'Ordre Souverain de Malte
• Officier de l'Ordre national du Québec
• Codor de oro

Titles from birth to currently

• Monsieur le Président de la République française (1995 - 2007)
• His Excellency The Sovereign Co-Prince of Andorra (1995 - 2007)

See also

• Anh Dao Traxel
• Le bruit et l'odeur
• List of national leaders
• Politics of France
• French presidential election, 1981
• French presidential election, 1988
• French presidential election, 1995
• French presidential election, 2002
• French presidential election, 2007

Bibliography

• Emmanuel Hecht, Thierry Vey, Chirac de A à Z, dictionnaire critique et impertinent, Éditions Albin Michel, ISBN 2-226-07664-6
• Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Le pouvoir et la vie, tome 3

External links

• Public opinion polls on Jacques Chirac
• Biography at the Official Website of the Office of the French President
• Template:Fr icon TF1
• Template:Fr icon l'Express
• Template:Fr icon Mairie de Paris
• Template:Fr icon Biography and his election (2002)
• Template:Fr icon Some Jacques Chirac's quotations
• Jacques Chirac threatened to launch nuclear attack on Iran, Der Spiegel, January 19, 2006.
• Jacques Chirac - A life in pictures photo essay
• Anne Applebaum, Farewell, Jacques Chirac, The Washington Post, May 8, 2007