|
Jacques René Chirac (born November 29, 1932) is a French politician. He was elected President of the French Republic in 1995 and 2002 (in addition, inherently, being Co-Prince of Andorra).
An only child, Chirac is the son of a bank clerk and later an executive for an aircraft company. In 1954, he graduated from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, a university for students interested in
politics and diplomacy and earned a degree in political science. In 1956, Chirac was
drafted in the army. He obtained the rank of officer during the French-Algerian war and was wounded in Algeria,
where France was engaged in a colonial war.
Currently married to Bernadette Chodron de Courcel, they have two daughters, one of whom has long been his public
relation assistant (Claude Chirac). He is a Roman Catholic.
Early political career
Inspired by General Charles de Gaulle to enter public life,
Chirac continued pursuing civil service in the 1950s. He attended Harvard University's summer School before entering the École Nationale d'Administration (the
elite, competitive-entrance college that trains France's top civil servants) in 1957. He
earned a graduate degree from the École Nationale d'Administration and in 1959.
He then became a civil servant and rose rapidly through the ranks. In April 1962, only three years after having graduated from the École Nationale d'Administration, 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. [1]
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 June 1940
Appel.
Chirac already 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 (1968-71), he had worked
closely with Giscard d'Estaing, who had then
headed the ministry. In 1968, when student and worker strikes rocked France, Chirac played
a central role in negotiating a truce.
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. He
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. As 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 April 2. In 1974 former minister of economy and finance
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a non-Gaullist
centrist, was elected Pompidou's successor amid France's most competitive election campaign in years.
Prime minister, 1974-76
When Giscard became president, Chirac was nominated as prime minister by Giscard on May 27, 1974. At the age of just 41, Chirac stood out as the very model of the jeunes loups
("young wolves") of French political life.
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
premier, 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.
Citing Giscard's unwillingness to give him authority, Chirac resigned as prime ministers in 1976. He proceeded to build up his
political base among France's several conservative parties. His goal was to reconstitute the Gaullist UDR into a neo-Gaullist
group, the Rally for the Republic.
Mayor of Paris
By an astute move he secured his election as secretary-general of the Gaullist UDR in the face of potential opposition from
the party "barons" and soon afterwards consolidated his hold over the majority by easily defeating an opposition motion of
censure. Chirac also formed the conservative Rally of the Republic movement in 1976 to perpetuate the policies of Charles de
Gaulle.
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. 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.
In 1978, he attacked pro-European
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's Union for French Democracy as being the "pro-foreign
party" (in the "call of Cochin").
In 1981 Chirac made his first run for president. Chirac ran against sitting president
Giscard, thus splitting the center-right vote; both Chirac and Giscard were defeated by Socialist François Mitterrand. 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.
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.
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. 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. See Corruption scandals in the Paris region.
Presidency
The Grand-Croix of the Legion of Honor is conferred on Chirac during his inauguration as President of the French Republic on May
17, 1995.
His 18 years as mayor of Paris finally proved the launching pad for his first successful bid for the French presidency. On his
third attempt to win the French presidency, Mayor Jacques Chirac of Paris finally succeeded in May 1995, narrowly beating Socialist Party challenger Lionel Jospin.
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 February 1, 1996
that France had ended "once and for all" its nuclear testing, intending to accede to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Chirac was elected on a platform of tax cuts and job programs, but his policies did little to ease the recent labor strikes
during his first months in office. On the domestic front, neoliberal economic austerity measures introduced by Chirac and his
conservative prime minister Alain Juppé, including budgetary cutbacks,
proved highly unpopular. 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 program. 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 only controls foreign and military
policy—and even then, allocation of funding is 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.
He has generally stood for lower tax rates, the removal of price controls, strong punishments for crime and terrorism and
business privatization. However, he also, at other times, argued for more "social" economic policies and was elected in 1995
after a campaign where he said he would reduce the "social rift" (fracture sociale).
Second term as president
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 in April 2002. In the election of 2002 he opposed controversial rightwing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen of the anti-immigrant National Front and won
re-election by a landslide. (Le Pen had shocked the world when he edged past Prime Minister Jospin in the first round of
presidential balloting to qualify for the runoff election.)
"We must reject extremism in the name of the honor 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." [2]
On July 14, 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 towards the presidential motorcade, before being
overpowered by bystanders. The gunman, Maxime Brunerie, was later found unfit to stand trial due to mental incapacity; the
violent far-right group with which he was associated, Unité Radicale was then administratively dissolved. Brunerie had also
been candidate for the Mouvement
National Républicain party at a local elections.
Chirac emerged as a leading voice against the Bush administration's conduct in the Middle East. Despite intense U.S. pressure,
Chirac threatened to veto any resolution in the U.N. Security Council that would authorize the use of force to disarm Iraq until
UN weapons inspectors in Iraq were given more time. (cf. Governments' pre-war positions on invasion of Iraq, Global protests against war on
Iraq).
- Jacques Chirac - Prime Minister
- Jean
Sauvagnargues - Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Jacques Soufflet -
Minister of Defense
- 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 Defense.
- 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.
- Jacques Chirac - Prime Minister
- Jean-Bernard Raimond - Minister of Foreign Affairs
- André Giraud - Minister of
Defense
- 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
See also
External link
|