Jacques Chirac

Early political career

After earning a graduate degree from the ENA in 1959, he became a civil servant and rose rapidly through the ranks. As soon as April 1962, Chirac was appointed head of the personal staff of Georges Pompidou, then prime minister under de Gaulle. 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. Chirac won the election and was given a post in the ministry of social affairs. (Gaullists have historically supported a strong central government and independence in foreign policy.) 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 June 18, 1940.

Chirac rose to become economy minister in the late 1960s, serving as department head and a secretary of state. As state secretary at the Ministry of Economy and Finance (1968-1971), he had worked closely with Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who headed the ministry. In 1968, when student and worker strikes rocked France (see May 1968), Chirac played a central role in negotiating a truce. The young technocrat from ENA then rose to fame; Chirac was caricatured as the archetypal brilliant ENA graduate in an Asterix graphic novel.

Chirac's first high-level post came in 1972 when he became minister of agriculture and rural development under his mentor Georges Pompidou, who was 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 by Pompidou's sudden death on 2 April. Whreas the former Prime minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas was the Gaullist candidate, Jacques Chirac and others personnalities decided to support the former minister of economy and finance Giscard d'Estaing, a non-Gaullist centrist. This one was elected Pompidou's successor amid France's most competitive election campaign in years.

Prime Minister, 1974-76

However, the government could not afford to ignore the narrow margin by which Giscard d'Estaing had defeated the United Left candidate, François Mitterrand, in 1974. Giscard, not himself a member of the Gaullist Union des Démocrates pour la République (UDR), saw in the essentially pragmatic Chirac the qualities needed to reconcile the "Giscardian" and "non-Giscardian" factions of the parliamentary majority.

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.

In December 1974, Saddam Hussein (then vice-president of Iraq, but largely defacto leader) 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. France also sold a nuclear reactor called Osirak to Iraq.

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.

Chirac's First Ministry,

• Jacques Chirac - Prime Minister
• Jean Sauvagnargues - Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Jacques Soufflet - Minister of Defence
• Michel Poniatowski - Minister of the Interior
• Jean-Pierre Fourcade - Minister of Economy and Finance
• Michel d'Ornano - Minister of Industry and Research
• Michel Durafour - Minister of Labour
• Jean Lecanuet - Minister of Justice
• René Haby - Minister of Education
• Christian Bonnet - Minister of Agriculture
• Robert Galley - Minister of Equipment
• Simone Veil - Minister of Health
• Pierre Abelin - Minister of Cooperation
• Vincent Ansquer - Minister of Commerce and Craft Industry
• Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber - Minister of Reform
• André Jarrot - Minister of Quality of Life

Changes

• 9 June 1974 - Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber leaves the cabinet and is not replaced as Minister of Reforms.
• 1 February 1975 - Yvon Bourges succeeds Soufflet as Minister of Defence.
• 12 January 1976 - Jean de Lipkowski succeeds Abelin as Minister of Cooperation. Raymond Barre enters the ministry as Minister of External Commerce. André Fosset succeeds Jarrot as Minister of Quality of Life.

Chirac's Second Ministry,

• 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

Mayor of Paris

Action as a mayor

With the new party firmly under his control, Chirac was elected mayor of Paris in 1977, a position he held until 1995. As mayor of Paris, Chirac's political influence grew. 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.

Pascal Lissouba and Jacques Chirac, 7 November 1993 in Paris

In addition, Chirac has been named in several cases of alleged corruption and abuse which 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. This could be the reason why he wants to run for re-election in 2007. See Corruption scandals in the Paris region.

The road to the presidency

In 1981, Chirac made his first run for president. Chirac ran against sitting president Giscard in the presidential election, thus splitting the centre-right vote; both Chirac and Giscard were defeated by Socialist François Mitterrand. Giscard has always blamed Chirac for his defeat in the 1981 elections; since then, the relationship between the two men has always been somewhat tense, with Giscard, though in the same government coalition as Chirac, taking opportunities to criticize Chirac's actions.

When a strong conservative coalition won a slight majority in the National Assembly in 1986, Mitterrand appointed Chirac prime minister. This 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 - defence and foreign affairs - to belittle his Prime Minister.

Chirac sought the presidency and ran against Mitterrand for a second time in 1988, but was defeated in runoff elections. However, he remained mayor of Paris and active in parliament.

Presidency

First term as president

Shortly after taking office, Chirac – undaunted by international protests by angry environmental groups – insisted upon the resumption of nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia in 1995. 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."

Chirac announced on 1 February 1996 that France had ended "once and for all" its nuclear testing, intending to accede to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Jacques Chirac with Bill Clinton outside Élysée Palace.

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.

One of his nicknames is Chameleon Bonaparte. Another is La Girouette ("the weathervane"). At one point an anti-European Gaullist, he became a champion of the Euro as president.

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 programme. But this strategy backfired. Chirac's dismissal of the parliament created an uproar, and his power was weakened by the subsequent backlash. The Socialist Party, 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. This power-sharing arrangement between Chirac and Jospin 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.

Second term as president

President Chirac and United States President George W. Bush talk over issues during the 27th G8 summit, 21 July 2001.

At age 69, Chirac faced his fourth presidential campaign in 2002. He was the first choice of fewer than one voter in five in the first round of voting of the presidential elections of April 2002. It had been expected that he would face incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin on 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, and won re-election by a landslide; most parties outside the National Front 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.

"We must reject extremism in the name of the honour of France, in the name of the unity of our own nation," Chirac said before the presidential election. "I call on all French to massively vote for republican ideals against the extreme right." [link]

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

The left-wing Socialist Party being 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.

On 14 July 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 [link].The gunman, Maxime Brunerie, underwent psychiatric testing; the violent far-right group with which he was associated, Unité Radicale was then administratively dissolved. Brunerie had also been a candidate for the Mouvement National Républicain far-right party at a local election. Brunerie's trial for attempted murder began on 6 December 2004; a crucial question was whether the court found that Brunerie's capacity for rational thought was absent (see insanity defence) or merely altered. On 10 December the court, exceeding the sentence pushed for by the prosecution, sentenced Brunerie to 10 years in prison.

Chirac emerged as a leading voice against US president George W. Bush's administration's conduct towards Iraq. Despite intense U.S. pressure, Chirac threatened to veto, at that given point, a resolution in the U.N. 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. Russia, another permanent UN Security Council member, said it, too, would use its veto against such a resolution[link] (cf. Governments' pre-war positions on invasion of Iraq, Protests against the 2003 Iraq war). "Iraq today does not represent an immediate threat that justifies an immediate war," Chirac said on 18 March 2003. Chirac was then the target of various American and British commentators supporting the decisions of president Bush and prime minister Tony Blair. See also anti-French sentiment in the United States. Suspected French involvement in "under the table" deals with Saddam Hussein have led many supporters of the war to question Chirac's motives in opposing the invasion of Iraq.

During a state visit to China on 21 April 2005 Chirac's Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin lent support to new "anti-secession" laws on Taiwan, allowing China invade Taiwan in the event of Taiwanese independence, and continued to push for a lift of the EU arms embargo against China. France's position was seen as attempting to aid China in altering the balance of power against the U. S. in East Asia, in which the control of Taiwan is of utmost importance. This drew widespread condemnation from the U. S. which responded by threatening sanctions against the EU unless the embargo was continued.

Jacques Chirac giving a speech to the French People to vote "Oui" ("Yes") on the European Constitution.

With José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Gerhard Schröder.

French voters turned down the proposed document by a wide margin, which was interpreted by some as a rebuke to Chirac and his government. Two days later, Jean-Pierre Raffarin resigned and Chirac appointed Dominique de Villepin as Prime Minister of France.

In an address to the nation, Chirac has declared that the new cabinet's top priority would be to curb the unemployment level, which consistently hovers above 10%, calling for a "national mobilization" to that effect. One of the main promises of Jean-Pierre Raffarin when he became Prime Minister had been to spur growth and that "the end of President Chirac's term would be marked by a drop of the unemployment"; however, at the time of his dismissal, no such improvement could be seen. Villepin set himself a deadline of a hundred days to restore the French people's trust in their government (note that Villepin's first published book was titled The Hundred Days or the Spirit of Sacrifice).

Chirac became the subject of controversy the day before the International Olympic Committee was due to pick a host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Chirac made comments stating that "the only worse food than British food is Finnish" and "the only thing the British have done for Europe's agriculture is mad cow disease". Not only were Chirac's comments considered unsportsmanlike where the normal etiquette is not to criticize rival cities, there was also the presence of two Finnish members on the International Olympic Committee who would vote in the final ballot. Out of the competing candidate cities, the bid was widely acknowledged as the front runner but Paris's narrow loss to archrival London led many to believe that Chirac's comments were at fault. It seems that the French public laid the blame of the failure on president Chirac, and not on mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë, whose popularity had in fact risen according to polls.

Even longtime Chirac supporters have lost their faith. Jean-Louis Debré, president of the National Assembly and a faithful Chirac supporter, declared "I'm not sure that Jacques Chirac succeeded in his presidency. I'd at least like that he succeeds in his exit." (L'Express, 18/7) According to a July 2005 poll, 32% judge Jacques Chirac favorably and 63% unfavorably.

It is unclear whether Jacques Chirac will run for a third mandate in 2007 and, should he not run or should he fail in a re-election bid, whether he risks prosecution and jail time for the various fraudulent schemes he has been named in. While he is currently immune from prosecution as a president, prescription (i.e. the statute of limitations) does not apply. His authority was seriously weakened by the October-November 2005 Paris suburb riots in which hundreds of cars and numerous warehouses were set alight throughout France by thousands of alienated North African immigrants who complain of widespread discrimination and unemployment. The riots were triggered by the accidental deaths of 2 North African immigrants in a poor Paris suburb named Clichy-sous-Bois who were rumoured to be fleeing from police.[link] Chirac later acknowledged that France had not done enough to integrate its Muslim North African citizens into French society or combat racism.[link]

One issue seen of increasing importance with respect to a possible 2007 re-election bid is Jacques Chirac's age and health. Chirac has often been described to be extremely resilient and hard-working, and to have conserved a legendary appetite; before 2005, he had never had major health problems throughout his long political career. He used to be a heavy smoker but had given up many years ago. Nevertheless, it has become apparent that he is also careful of hiding signs that may betray declining health. In October 2003, there was an intense debate about French leaders' tradition of keeping secret their medical problems (for example Mitterrand's cancer was hidden for 14 years) : Jacques Chirac has gone slightly deaf in one ear, and a former Environment Minister Roselyne Bachelot had revealed that a small hearing aid had been fitted discreetly into Mr Chirac's left ear. This debate leading to accusations of secrecy and speculation emerged once again in September 2005 when Chirac following a suspected stroke ( which provoked "slight impairment in his field of vision"). making it increasingly unlikely that he will run for a third term in 2007 and stoking the undeclared succession battle between Villepin and Nicolas Sarkozy (Villepin was appointed to serve in Chirac's place in the United Nations 2005 World Summit in New York).

Jacques Chirac with George W. Bush, President of the United States of America.

On 19 January 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.[link]

On 17 March 2006, Chirac, was involved in a controversy over a youth employment law after protests in Paris against the measure ended in violence and 187 arrests. Unions and student groups were reported to be planning further action , claiming up to 600,000 university and high school students took part in Thursday's action. They have tied any talks to withdrawal of the employment law, which is opposed by 68% of French people, according to an opinion poll published in Le Parisien newspaper , a rise of 13 percentage points in a week. Critics say the legal reform will create a generation of "disposable workers", but ministers tried to conciliate growing opposition, one saying no worker could be laid off without justification. The first employment contract (CPE) was designed to cut youth unemployment by allowing employers to dismiss workers under 26 within their first two years in a job. This led to a turn around by Chrirac and his Prime Minister on the April 10th saying the controversial law was to be scrapped. Chirac took the unprecedented step of signing the bill into law while at the same time calling for not applying the CPE clauses, a move with no base in the French Constitution. Stating the 'palpable discontent' in his country Chirac promised a more popular law would be enacted.

During April and May 2006, President Chirac's administration has been beset by a crisis as his chosen Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, was accused of asking General Rondot, a top level French spy, of asking for a secret investigation into the latter's chief political rival, Nicolas Sarkozy in 2004. This matter has been called the Clearstream Affair. On 10 May 2006, following a Cabinet meeting, Chirac made a rare television appearance to try to protect Prime Minister 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. [link] Chirac stated that "The Republic is not a dictatorship of rumours, a dictatorship of calumny."[link] 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.

July 2006, the G8 meets to discuss international energy concerns. Despite the rising awareness of global wamring issues, the G8 focuses on "energy security" issues. President 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 industrialized nations.[link]

Elected and Political offices held by Jacques Chirac

• 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
• Member of the Corrèze Conseil Général for the canton of Meymac 1968-1982
• State Secretary for the Economy and Finance 1968-1971
• Deputy for Corrèze (June to August 1968)
• 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

Titles from birth to currently

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

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See also