- Jacques Chirac died this morning ‘surrounded by his family’, his son-in-law said
- His death was also announced in the National Assembly in Paris this morning
- He served as France’s head of state from 1995 to 2007 and was twice French PM
Former French President Jacques Chirac has died at the age of 86.
Chirac died this morning ‘surrounded by his family’, his son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux said today.
His death was also announced in the National Assembly in Paris where a minute’s silence was held.
In a long career, Chirac was twice Prime Minister of France before serving as head of state from 1995 to 2007.
During his term, his opposition to the Iraq War put him at loggerheads with George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
After leaving office he was found guilty of corruption dating back to his time as mayor of Paris and given a two-year suspended prison sentence.
Former French President Jacques Chirac (pictured in 2007, the year he left office) has died at the age of 86
Paying tribute today, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker hailed Chirac as a ‘great statesman’.
‘His legacy for France and the European Union will stay with us forever,’ Juncker said.
Chirac’s health had started to decline in office. In 2005 he was taken to hospital with a mysterious blood vessel problem that proved to be a stroke. He also had a pacemaker inserted in 2008.
He was excused from attending his 2011 trial on health grounds after medics said he was suffering from neurological problems which affected his memory.
Chirac was found guilty of channelling public money into phantom jobs for political cronies when he was mayor of Paris, but was not sent to prison.
In December 2015, he spent two weeks in hospital, suffering from what his family described as fatigue.
Chirac’s career in national politics began in the 1960s when he worked under President and former Resistance hero Charles de Gaulle.
He was nicknamed ‘Le Bulldozer’ early in his career for his determination and ambition. His changing political views also earned him nicknames such as Chameleon Bonaparte and the Weathervane.
In 1974 he became Prime Minister – a subordinate position in France – under President Valery Giscard d’Estaing.
After leaving that post he became mayor of Paris in 1977, a position he held for 18 years.
Former French leader Jacques Chirac and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair are pictured in Paris in 2006. They clashed over the Iraq War
Long the standard-bearer of the French right, he returned as Prime Minister in 1986 in an uncomfortable arrangement with President Francois Mitterrand of the opposing Socialist Party, serving until 1988.
After unsuccessful runs for the presidency in 1981 and 1988, he was finally elected head of state in 1995.
In what was perhaps his finest hour, he acknowledged France’s role in deporting Jews to extermination camps during the Nazi occupation in World War II.
‘Yes, the criminal folly of the occupiers was seconded by the French, by the French state,’ he declared, rejecting the myth of his nation’s innocence.
Chirac ended compulsory military service and started moves that reintegrated France into the NATO defence alliance, reversing a policy set in the 1960s.
However, his presidency was derailed when he unnecessarily called a parliamentary election in 1997, then lost it, forcing him to share power with the Socialists again.
In 2002 he had an easy ride to a second term when far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen unexpectedly reached the final round.
In a rare show of unity, the moderate right and the left united behind Chirac, and he crushed Le Pen with 82 per cent of the vote in the runoff.
His outspoken opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 rocked France’s relations with Washington and weakened the Atlantic alliance.
At home his authority was badly weakened by France’s ‘No’ vote in a European Constitution referendum in 2005, angering the pro-EU Chirac.
‘If you want to shoot yourself in the foot, do it, but after don’t complain,’ he raged at his own electorate.
Despite promising to heal the ‘social fracture’, he failed to defuse tensions between police and minority youths that exploded into riots across France in 2005.
After the presidential term was shortened from seven years to five, he left office in 2007, replaced by Nicolas Sarkozy.
source:dailymail
