The former French president Jacques Chirac died Thursday at age 86, after a long illness that had the last remote times of the outbreaks that attracted so many decades. Key and essential character of French politics since the second half of the twentieth century, Chirac, who knew almost all spheres of power - was a minister and prime minister before arriving at the Elysium, after using the mayor's office of Paris as a political springboard, although his performances in front of the City Council of the capital earned him a legal condemnation: he was an extremely charismatic character, valued by both his followers and detractors, who recognized him, among others, his firm opposition to the Iraq war.
The news of his death was transmitted by his family. “President Jacques Chirac died this morning surrounded by his family. In peace, ”said son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux, Claude's husband, the only daughter of the former president who survives him.
The French political world immediately paid tribute to Jacques Chirac. The one that was his home for 12 years, Elíseo, announced that it will open its doors from tonight until Sunday for those who wish to leave a message of condolences in the hall of honor of the French presidential palace. The City Hall of Paris also opens its doors to receive messages from citizens for those who are outside their councilor for almost two decades. In addition, Monday will be a day of national mourning and a "solemn service" will be held in the Saint Sulpice church of the capital, announced the Government shortly before the formal speech of the president, Emmanuel Macron, who suspended the previous acts to honor His predecessor.
Chirac was a "great Frenchman", a "man of state that we wanted and who loved us", a man who, "whether or not we shared his ideas or combats", made all the French "identify themselves in that man who was shown to us and we were joined "and who knew" to win both the sympathy of the farmer and the magnates of the industry, "said the current tenant of the Elysium.
"It embodied a certain idea of France, always ensured its unity and cohesion and the protection of extremes and hatred," Macron in his brief address. In addition to representing an "independent and proud nation, capable of rising against an unjustified military intervention" such as the Iraq war, Chirac also embodied "a certain idea of the world." "He fought for a Europe of men rather than the market, a stronger and more protective Europe, based on an unshakable Franco-German friendship and soon committing to the environment," he recalled.
The National Assembly, which met when it heard the news, greeted Chirac's life with a minute of silence. “Jacques Chirac is part of the history of France. A France in its image, fiery, complex, sometimes crossed by contradictions, always animated by a tireless republican passion, ”said the president of the chamber, Richard Ferrand.
The center-right politician (Paris, 1932) occupied the Elysium between 1995 and 2007. A troubled time in which, among others, he lost international fame with his firm no to the Iraq War launched by US President George W. Bush in 2003 The North American ultimatum “compromises the future of a people, the future of a region, the stability of the world. It is a serious decision, ”he warned, in vain, on March 18, 2003, a few days before the start of the war, our consequences undermine international news.
He was also the first head of the French State who, in 1995, recognized the responsibility of France in the deportation of Jews during World War II, something eluded by all his predecessors of the V French Republic. Chirac also saw, much earlier than others, the danger posed by climate change. "Our house burns," he said in reference to the planet he said in his already famous speech during the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in 2002. He will go down in history for being the politician who faced for the first time in a second election round to the extreme right, in the presidencies of that same 2002 in which they defeated the leader of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, after being able to combine all the forces, including those of the left, in a "republican front".
But Jacques Chirac will be recorded, too, as the only French former president to have been convicted of justice for embezzlement of public money and abuse of trust. When the verdict was known, in 2011, Chirac was already very ill - he suffered a cardiovascular problem in 2005 - and retired from public life and did not have to serve the two years in prison to which he was convicted of dozens of fictitious jobs which he authorized during his period at the head of the Paris City Council that, paradoxically, was the springboard on his jump to the Elysium. Before his time as mayor and as president of the Republic, Chirac was Minister of the Government of Georges Pompidou in the early 1970s (Parliamentary Relations, Agriculture and Home Affairs). During his first term as president, he had to govern in cohabitation with a socialist cabinet led by Lionel Jospin. Although they were tough political rivals, he highlighted his work today. “I had the privilege of ruling France under his presidency. It was a politically complex period (…) but in foreign policy, we always take care to speak with one voice, ”France Inter radio station recalled
The socialist and former president François Hollande also specifically highlighted his international vision. “Long before others, he understood the challenge of global warming, the development of Africa and peace in the Middle East. For that reason, he rejected in 2003 that our country entered the war in Iraq, our tragic consequences we see today, ”he said in a statement, in which he also valued his ability to“ establish a link with the French. ”
“Chirac will remain the man of Vel d'Hiv's speech [in which he admits the responsibility of France in the Holocaust], the president who opposed the war in Iraq, the passionate about civilizations and the man for whom I voted in 2002. I know that it already occupies a beautiful place in the heart of the French, ”on Twitter the former French socialist prime minister and former candidate for mayor of Barcelona, Manuel Valls.
“Today, part of my life disappears,” said former president Nicolas Sarkozy, what happened in Elysium and who was Interior Minister under Chirac
The current leader of the extreme right Marine Le Pen, whose father defeated Chirac in 2002, also recognized the value of a politician with whom "many divergences" but stressed, "was able to oppose the madness of the Iraq war."
The grief crossed the galas borders. "Europe loses one of its leading figures today, France loses a great statesman and a faithful friend," said the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. The news of the "magnificent ally and friend" was received with "great sadness" by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson valued a "formidable political leader" whose loss "he sent to France for generations ".
From Spain, the acting president, Pedro Sánchez, said that with Chirac "a leader who marked European politics is leaving." Although Iraq put them on opposite sides, former president José María Aznar recorded in the meantime with Chirac, "probably the last great classic of French politics," he had a relationship "in very different circumstances not always easy, but sincere and respectful ".