Late French leader Chirac had steely will with a human touch

Affable but armed with a steely will, Jacques Chirac was a consummate politician who served as Paris mayor, lawmaker, prime minister and then president of France for 12 years, always championing the nation’s sense of its own grandeur. Chirac’s ambition and determination, which won him the nickname “Le Bulldozer, kept him in office but alienated France’s oldest ally when he opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. His death on Thursday at age 86 marked a nation feeling sorely in need of a leader with Chirac’s staying power. During 40 years in public life, he weathered political failures and corruption scandals but emerged as a president with a human touch. No French head of state since Chirac has lasted two terms. 

Foreign leaders hailed Chirac’s statesmanship, while French President Emmanuel Macron said the conservative leader so familiar to the nation “embodied a certain idea of France. Whether or not you shared his ideas, his combat, we all recognized ourselves in him, this man who resembled us, assembled us. Jacques Chirac was a great Frenchman ... in love with our land, steeped in our history and in love ... with our culture.” Macron said in a solemn homage on national television.

READ: PM Modi Condoles Demise Of Ex-French President Jacques Chirac

Elysee presidential palace opens

In a highly unusual move, Macron, a centrist, threw open the doors of the Elysee presidential palace Thursday night through Sunday so citizens could sign a condolence book. They streamed in after dark. A lifelong conservative, Chirac fashioned himself as the political successor of Gen. Charles de Gaulle, the World War II Resistance hero turned president who even today is a national icon in France. Chirac founded the party meant to carry on de Gaulle’s legacy, the Rally for the Republic. Its name has changed twice as it became tainted by corruption and other scandals, and today is a shadow of its former itself. Corruption charges dating from his nearly two decades as Paris mayor dogged Chirac himself, but immunity from prosecution protected him. He finally was snared in 2011, four years after leaving the presidency, and found guilty on multiple charges and given a two-year suspended jail sentence.

READ: Jacques Chirac The Former French President Dies At The Age Of 86

1995-2007

France’s political long-distance runner, Chirac won the presidency on his third try in 1995. He was re-elected to a second term in 2002 after a showdown with then-far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. An exceptional groundswell of support from the left and right buoyed Chirac to an 82% landslide victory against Le Pen, a political pariah linked to racism and anti-Semitism. In a bid to broaden his party’s appeal to rising nationalists, Chirac pushed the conservatives’ political compass further right before becoming president. He notably referred during a speech at a 1991 party banquet to “the noise and the odors” of a fictitious immigrant family on welfare. The rock group Zebda made a song out of the phrase. Yet Chirac also raised France’s moral stature by acknowledging the French state was an accomplice to the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews during World War II, an admission that a generation of previous leaders failed to make.

“These dark hours soil forever our history and are an injury to our past and our traditions. The criminal folly of the (German) occupier was seconded by the French, by the French state,” he said, referring to the collaborationist Vichy regime.” Chirac said after two months in office.

READ: Ex-French President Jacques Chirac, Who Stood Up To US, Dies At 86

Praised for human qualities

Chirac embraced European unity as well, once calling it an “art”, and was personally and politically humiliated in 2005 when France said “no” in a referendum to a constitution meant to fortify the European Union. Chirac’s considerable people skills were no match for the challenges of the presidency. He struggled to reform France’s regulated economy and failed to defuse tensions between police and minority youths that exploded into nationwide riots in 2005. His popularity didn’t fully recover until he left the Elysee in 2007 when he handed power to protege-turned-rival Nicolas Sarkozy. Chirac went on to become one of France’s favorite political figures, often praised for his human qualities rather than his political achievements.

READ: Paris Climate March Halted Amid Clashes Between Activists And Police