Who is he?
President of France since 1995. Formerly Prime Minister and Mayor of Paris.
Why is he in the news?
This week he announced he will not be contesting the 2007 French presidential elections and will be retiring from a 40 year political career at the end of his current term.
Profile
Last Sunday, Jacques Chirac announced to his people that he had spent his whole life ‘serving France and serving peace,’ and would not be seeking a third term as President in the forthcoming elections. He did not go into detail about the reasons for his decision; stating merely that he would find ‘new ways to serve France,’ once he retired. Short and to the point, the brusque statement was a fitting way for this robust and controversial figure to end his political career.
Born in Paris and educated in that city’s top educational establishments, Chirac was inspired to enter public life by the larger-than-life father-figure of the modern French right, Charles de Gaulle. After spells at sea and in the army, he had a brief flirtation with Communism during his early years as a civil servant. He was mentored by another giant of French politics, Georges Pompidou, who nicknamed the young Jacques ‘Le Bulldozer’ for his ability to get things done in a ruthlessly efficient manner. Chirac served as Pompidou’s chief of staff and his tough negotiating skills were put to good use during the serious student and worker riots of May 1968, when he helped broker an agreement with unions to end the unrest.
Chirac’s support was instrumental in helping the centre-right candidate Valery Giscard d’Estaing win the 1974 presidential election and for his efforts he was appointed Prime Minister. The relationship between the two men soon soured however as the staunch Gaullist Chirac found himself obliged to implement progressive legislation at odds with his traditional political sensibilities. He resigned in 1976 and was promptly elected leader of a newly-formed Gaullist political party, the RPR, with his eye on the 1981 presidential vote. His ambitions were given a further boost in the 1977 municipal elections when he was elected as mayor of Paris, a position he would retain alongside other appointments until becoming President in 1995. His reputation remains tarnished by allegations of corruption in the mayor’s office throughout his term – allegations which may once again rise to the surface once he can no longer avail of Presidential immunity from prosecution. Chirac faced off against his former boss Giscard d’Estaing in the first round of the 1981 presidential election, securing 18 percent of the vote.
The unique system of government in France means that the term of the politically powerful President is not in sync with that of the National Assembly. This left the door open for a potentially difficult situation that finally became reality after the general election of 1986: The left lost their majority in the Assembly, meaning a right-wing government had to be formed under the Socialist President Mitterand. It was Chirac who took the risk of participating in this delicate political experiment, taking up the office of Prime Minister for the second time. Doubt reigned as to how much power the President and Prime Minister would respectively wield and whether or not the Constitution obliged them to follow similar policies. Describing Chirac’s approach to this challenge, historian Maurice Larkin said that “…while his instincts urged him to run the premiership in accordance with his sharply projected public image, his Gaullist concept of the Presidency was even stronger; and hope and reason dictated that he should do nothing as Premier that might weaken the office he hoped to capture at the next Presidential election.” Chirac enacted a limited program of liberal economic reforms, while tending to agree with Mitterand in the two areas that remained the President’s ‘special preserve’: defence and foreign affairs.
The 1988 Presidential election saw Jean-Marie Le Pen’s ultra-right Front National group emerge as a serious threat for the first time. While remaining firm on immigration and law and order, Chirac resisted the temptation to adopt the overtly racist tones of Le Pen’s campaign in an effort to co-opt his supporters. He emerged as the top right-wing candidate in the first round of voting but lost out to Mitterand in the final run-off. His second tenure as Prime Minister was then abruptly brought to a halt when the newly re-elected President called a general election, which resulted in a closely-matched balance between Left and Right.
The infamous ‘Le bruit et l’odeur’ speech in 1991 reinforced the hardline stance on immigration that had characterised the Chirac government of 1986-88. In it, he described the resentment felt by working-class French people, some of them second- or third-generation immigrants, for newly arrived African immigrants living on welfare with large families making ‘noise and smell.’ This resentment was understandable, he said, and did not constitute racism.
In 1995, Chirac finally achieved what had eluded him for so long, the Presidency of France. He ran his campaign along a theme of national unity and rejection of the partisan politics of the past. A right-wing majority in parliament at the time meant that he would face no immediate challenge to his authority from a hostile Prime Minister. He attracted scorn on the international stage shortly after coming to power, when he ordered the resumption of nuclear testing in the South Pacific. His blunt response: “You only have to look back at 1935… There were people then who were against France arming itself, and look what happened.” A decision to call a general election in 1997 backfired, resulting in a left-wing victory and a second period of ‘cohabitation’, with Lionel Jospin as Prime Minister.
The unexpected success of Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of the 2002 Presidential election paved the way for a landslide 82 percent victory for Chirac in the final round. His second term has President has been marred by an assassination attempt, a firm rebuff by the French electorate of the European Constitution, serious race riots in large urban areas in autumn 2005, as well as further public disturbances last year in opposition to his proposed employment contract that would have made it easier for firms to fire junior staff. In the final analysis, Chirac may be remembered for leaving a France more divided than ever, in stark contrast to his 1995 promises of social unity.
Throughout his career, Chirac has had a tumultuous personal life and his marriage to Bernadette has been repeatedly tarnished by accusations of infidelity. The couple have two daughters, Laurence and Claude. The latter has for many years served as her father’s PR assistant and personal advisor, but Laurence has led a troubled life blighted by anorexia and suicide attempts. The Chiracs also have a third ‘daughter’ whose story paints a picture of a man much more warm and caring than his public persona would suggest. Anh Dao was a 21-year-old Vietnamese ‘boat person’ who had fled the communist regime in her home country and ended up in Roissy Airport in Paris in 1979. The then-mayor of the city and his wife saw the young woman sobbing to herself in a corner. Chirac told her “don’t cry ma cherie. You are coming home with us.” Dao lived with the Chiracs for two years, a period she has described as ‘a marvellous fairytale.’ She had no French when she arrived in the country but now works for the Parisian civil service and is married to a police lieutenant. Their children refer to Chirac as ‘Grandpa’. Whether the French people at large will regard him with the same degree of affection after he steps down remains to be seen.
This article was researched and written as part of the coursework for the MA in Journalism programme at Dublin City University.
