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Jacques René Chirac (born in Paris November 29, 1932), is a French politician. Elected President of the French Republic in 1995 and 2002 (being, inherently, Co-Prince of Andorra).
Jacques Chirac was a collaborator of French Presidents Georges Pompidou in the 1960s and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in the 1970s. He was mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995 and Prime Minister in 1974 - 1976 and 1986 - 1988. He ran for President unsuccessfully in 1981, 1988, and was elected in 1995 and 2002.
His father was a bank clerk and later an executive for an aircraft company. He studied at:
He made his military service in the French Army from 1954 to 1957 and was wounded during the French-Algerian war. Currently married to Bernadette Chodron de Courcel, they have two daughters, one of whom is a politician Claude Chirac. He is a Roman Catholic.
Conservative Chirac began politics as a suspected Communist: he signed the Call of Stockholm and sold copies of the Communist daily l'Humanité. This was later a problem to him when he attended a military academy: although his academic merits should have ranked him first among the students, the military did not want a Communist officer, arranging to rank him last and assigning him the rank of private. After complaining, he was restored to his original rank and became an officer. Similarly, he had trouble entering the United States because of McCarthyism.
He is currently involved in a few financial scandals, but cannot be prosecuted yet due to his presidential status. In February 2004 Chirac's friend Alain Juppé, currently Mayor of the city of Bordeaux and also president of his political party UMP, was found guilty of illegally financing of the UMP during Chirac's mandate as Mayor of Paris, by using fictitious employment, because he was during few years UMP's Treasurer. Alain Juppé filed an appeal before the Appeal Court of Paris against this ruling.
Political Career:
Chirac stayed very much in the center-right as a Gaullist follower, standing for lower tax rates, the removal of price controls, strong punishments for crime and terrorism and business privatization.
Jacques Chirac ran for president in 1981 but was defeated by François Mitterrand. After the parliamentary elections in 1986 Mitterrand had to share power with a right-wing parliament (Cohabitation) and had to make Chirac his prime minister. Chirac was defeated again in the presidential election of 1988 (again by Mitterrand) but remained mayor of Paris and active in Parliament.
Chirac was finally elected president of France in 1995 but had to spend a lot of time pacifying a disillusioned electorate. His announcement that France would conduct a series of eight nuclear test blasts in the Pacific Ocean, lasting from September 1995 until May 1996, led to international controversy. After widespread negative reaction he 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. Unemployment in France remains among the highest in the European Union and strikes are very frequent, predominantly in the public sector, especially public transportation.
Chirac was also suspected of corruption and of using public money for personal gain when he was mayor of Paris (see financial scandals above). However, the investigations on his role in those matters were suspended until he ceases to enjoy presidential immunity from prosecution. The allegations prompted the satirical show Les Guignols de l'Info to introduce the puppet character of Super Menteur (Super Liar), featuring a caricature of Chirac in a Superman-like costume.
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 opposed war with Iraq in 2002 and 2003, calling for more time for the UN inspectors. His staunch and outspoken opposition to the George W. Bush administration made him the leading international voice of opposition to the war. Together with German chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Russian president Vladimir Putin, he called for diplomacy instead of war, and vowed to veto any UN Security Council resolution that would authorize an invasion of Iraq. This stance earned him respect from many Muslim countries, as well as widespread popularity in his own country. However there were also criticisms, especially from the United States that Chirac opposed the war sorely because it threatened French oil interests. It was also often mentioned that while Chirac was Prime Minister in the 70's and 80's France had enjoyed one of the closet relationships with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of any western state, including a personal state visit from Chirac in 1976.
His Prime Ministers have been:
See also: French presidential election, 2002, Politics of France
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