Background
Jacques Chirac was born in Paris on November 29, 1932. While his father was employed with an aircraft company, his mother was a homemaker. Chirac was an only child (his elder sister, Jacqueline, died in infancy before his birth).
It is 21.00 hrs and the announcement has just been made that Mr Jacques CHIRAC has been elected 5th President of France, in the reception and banqueting room of the the Hotel de Ville de Paris (the Town Hall), the former Mayor thanks his supporters before leaving for a reception at the party Headquarters. May 7th, 1995
Paris. Hôtel Matignon. 4th February 1976. Helmut KOHL (DE, 1930), President of the Rhineland and Palatinate as well as CDU (Christian Democrat Union) candidate for chancellory, met by Jacques CHIRAC (FR, 1932), Prime Minister of the government of Valéry GISCARD d'ESTAING (FR, 1926)
March 1986. Jacques CHIRAC, President of the R.P.R. (Rassemblement Pour la République) and Mayor of Paris sings the national anthem at the end of a rally. He is campaigning for the partliamentary elections. Behind him, an electoral poster of the politicians standing next to him.
Jacques CHIRAC. 1967.
Council of Ministers under the Pompidou government. At the foreground French politicians Valery GISCARD D'ESTAING and Jacques CHIRAC. 1970.
From left to right: French politicians Joseph COMITI, Jacques CHIRAC, Pierre MESSMER, Edgar FAURE and Michel DEBRE. 16 may 1974.
Paris. Hôtel Matignon. 4th February 1976. Helmut KOHL (DE, 1930), President of the Rhineland and Palatinate as well as CDU (Christian Democrat Union) candidate for chancellory, met by Jacques CHIRAC (FR, 1932), Prime Minister of the government of Valéry GISCARD d'ESTAING (FR, 1926)
Jacques CHIRAC, leader of the R.P.R. (right wing poltical party) meeting in the eastern suburbs of Paris (Porte de Pantin).
13 March 1978
13 March 1978
Paris, France
Congress of the RPR political party. French politician and Mayor of Paris Jacques CHIRAC. 1979.
Paris, France
Meeting of the RPR political party. Michel DEBRE and Jacques CHIRAC. 1979.
Jacques CHIRAC. 1979.
Paris, France
The gallant Mayor of Paris, Mr Jacques CHIRAC welcomes the Agricultural Minister Mme Edith CRESSON to the reviewing stand at the Place de La Concorde to watch the Bastille Day military parade. July 14th, 1981.
During the presidential election campaign. Candidate Jacques CHIRAC.
Paris, France
Mr Jacques CHIRAC, leader of the French RPR Party (Rassemblement pour la Republique) at the Party Headquarters in Paris. 1982.
Member of the RPR Party, Jacques CHIRAC, visiting the Correze region where he went shopping and purchased "cepes" wild mushrooms. 1982.
Mr Jacques CHIRAC, member of the RPR Party and Deputy for the region of Correze, visiting his constituency in August 1982.
Paris, France
Mr Jacques CHIRAC in his role as Mayor of Paris, wearing the tricolor sash of office and performs a marriage ceremony in the City Hall. 1982.
Paris, France
Mayor of Paris Jacques CHIRAC gives a luncheon in City Hall, for the veterans and military personnel who participated in the Bastille Day parade in the capital. July 14th, 1982.
Mr Jacques CHIRAC (Mayor of Paris) and member of the RPR Party, on vacation in the Correze region where he is also a Deputy, with his wife Bernadette as they open a local art exhibition. 1982.
Paris, France
1982. Mayor of Paris Jacques CHIRAC, at a press conference announcing the creation of the Palais Omnisport de Bercy (a sports and entertainment complex), which is the largest stadium to be built within the city.
Jacques CHIRAC (on the left), Mayor of Paris, president of the RPR Party and deputy of the Correze, at a banquet. He talks to his wife Bernadette while a local politician makes a speech.
he Mayor of Paris Jacques CHIRAC, visiting the renovation programme of the Esplanade des Invalides in Paris. 1982.
Mayor of Paris Jacques CHIRAC with former French President Valéry GISCARD d'ESTAING. 1985.
Jacques CHIRAC, Valery GISCARD d'ESTAING and Raymond BARRE singing the Marseillaise at a right wing election rally. 1985.
Jacques CHIRAC (left), President of the RPR and Jacques TOUBON at a rally for the parliamentary elections.
March 1986. Jacques CHIRAC, President of the R.P.R. (Rassemblement Pour la Republique) and Mayor of Paris canvasses in a Paris shop.
March 1986. Jacques CHIRAC, President of the R.P.R. (Rassemblement Pour la République) and Mayor of Paris sings the national anthem at the end of a rally. He is campaigning for the partliamentary elections. Behind him, an electoral poster of the politicians standing next to him.
Jacques CHIRAC, French prime minister and leader of the RPR Gaullist party, at a party rally in Paris.The French Prime Minister Jacques CHIRAC and leader of the RPR Gaullist Party, campaigning for the Presidential Elections of 1988, in the Paris suburbs of Vincennes.
French politician Jacques CHIRAC. 1988.
Presidential election campaign. French mayor of bordeaux Jacques CHABAN-DELMAS, in the background, Prime Minister Jacques CHIRAC. 1988.
On the left: Raymond BARRE, deputy for the Rhône "departement" and former candidate for the presidency of the republic. On the right: Jacques CHIRAC, Prime Minister and candidate for the presidential elections. April 29th, 1988.
From left to right: French Minister of Interior Charles PASQUA, Prime Minister Jacques CHIRAC, French Minister of Economy Edouard BALLADUR and Minister of Social issues Philippe SEGUIN. April 19th, 1988.
16 November 1993. The Dalai Lama TENZIN GYATSO during a visit to France. The Dalai Lama being received by the Mayor of Paris, Jacques CHIRAC, in his private office in the Mairie de Paris (the City Hall). He gave Mr Chirac a Khata (a scarf of blessing).
May 7th 1995. Mr Jacques CHIRAC has just obtained the majority vote, thus becoming the new President of the French Republic. Hundreds of his supporters gather inside and in front of the RPR Party campaign offices, while he triumphantly stands at the balcony.
It is 21.00 hrs and the announcement has just been made that Mr Jacques CHIRAC has been elected 5th President of France, in the reception and banqueting room of the the Hotel de Ville de Paris (the Town Hall), the former Mayor thanks his supporters before leaving for a reception at the party Headquarters. May 7th, 1995
May 7th 1995. 11.30 am. Mr Jacques CHIRAC arriving at the voting poll with his wife and his daughter Claude, who has been the manager of her father's campaign. His wife Bernadette Chirac (background), has been Municipal Advisor of Sarran since 1971.
7th May 1995. Mr Jacques CHIRAC at the voting station of Sarran in the Correze region of France, where his wife Bernadette Chirac has been a Municipal Advisor since 1971.
The day after the first flight of the A380 President Chirac visits to meet some of the work force. April 2005.
Jacques Chirac then attended the Lycée Carnot.
Jacques Chirac then attended Lycée Louis-le-Grand.
Chirac graduated from the Paris Institute of Political Studies
Chirac attended Harvard University's summer school
Commander of the Order of Agricultural Merit (France)
Cross of MIlitary Valour (France)
Combatant's Cross (France)
Aeronautical Medal
Order of the Black Star
Nord African Security and Order Operations Commemorative Medal (France)
Jacques Chirac was born in Paris on November 29, 1932. While his father was employed with an aircraft company, his mother was a homemaker. Chirac was an only child (his elder sister, Jacqueline, died in infancy before his birth).
He acquired his basic education in Paris from Lycée Carnot and Lycée Louis-Le-Grand. In the 1950s, he took to pursue a career in civil services. For the same, he continued his academic career graduating from Paris Institute of Political Science in 1953.
After a short stint at Harvard University’s summer school, he enrolled at the Grande école National School of Administration (ENA) in 1957. Two years of rigorous training to rank amongst France’s best civil servants paid off as he was appointed as a civil servant in the Court of Auditors.
In 1959 Chirac began his bureaucratic career in accounting at the Cour des Comptes. Like many bureaucrats of his day, he found his own commitment to growth and modernization coincided with the policies of the new Gaullist government. He was tapped to join a politician's personal staff, in this case Prime Minister Pompidou's, in 1962. For the remainder of Pompidou's tenure, Chirac was a valuable economic adviser who played a critical role in the dramatic economic growth France was experiencing.
Chirac entered the electoral arena in 1965, when he was elected to the municipal council of the tiny Corrèzian town of Sainte-Féréol, his family's hometown. In 1967 he was elected to the National Assembly from that area and was repeatedly re-elected after that. Chirac was also appointed to a series of cabinet posts, beginning as secretary of state for social affairs in charge of employment in 1967. After that he served as secretary of state for the economy and finance (1968 - 1971), minister delegate to the premier for relations with Parliament (1971 - 1972), minister of agriculture and rural development (1972 - 1974), and minister of the interior (February-May 1974).
Chirac's political influence within the Gaullist party grew during those years. His personal political career really took off with the 1974 presidential election. President Georges Pompidou died while in office that April. Chirac supported the successful Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in the ensuing elections rather than the Gaullist Jacques Chaban-Delmas. The new president named Chirac prime minister. And, despite some grumbling from the old Gaullist "barons, " he took control of the Gaullist party, which had been left in a shambles following Chaban's disastrous showing in the elections.
His years as prime minister were difficult. He and President Giscard had different styles and images of the proper role for the state. Chirac, in particular, had difficulty with the president's frequently expressed desire to limit the role of the state in guiding the economy. In addition, Prime Minister Chirac's strong ambitions often conflicted with the president's. Finally, in 1976, the president requested and received Prime Minister Chirac's resignation.
Chirac restructured the Gaullist party, calling it the Rally for the Republic (RPR), and became the "new" party's first leader as a first step in his own presidential campaign. In 1977 he was elected the first mayor of Paris since the commune of 1870-1871. He used that office, which he held until 1995, as a vehicle to criticize the national government and to demonstrate his own ability to head a team that had remarkable success in redeveloping much of the city and improving its social services.
He also headed the RPR slate in the 1978 legislative elections and continued his critical support of the Giscard-Barre government from then until the end of Giscard's seven-year term in 1981. That year, Jacques Chirac chose to run in the presidential elections and did rather well, winning 18 percent of the first ballot vote. At the second ballot, he only gave Giscard lukewarm support, which undoubtedly helped contribute to the president's defeat by President François Mitterrand. Chirac remained one of the leading opposition politicians.
When the Socialist Party of President Mitterrand lost its majority in the National Assembly in the 1986 election, Chirac became prime minister again in a power-sharing agreement called cohabitation. It was the first time in the 28 years of the Fifth Republic that the French government was divided between a conservative parliament, led by Chirac, and a socialist president, Mitterrand.
In 1988 Chirac ran for president a second time and was again defeated by Mitterrand. Mitterrand's election ended cohabitation and Chirac's term as prime minister. In 1995, Mitterrand, in declining health, decided not to seek another term in office. In the May election to replace him, Chirac won nearly 53 percent of the vote to capture the presidency on his third attempt.
During the 1995 presidential campaign, Chirac criticised the "sole thought" (pensée unique) of neoliberalism represented by his challenger on the right and promised to reduce the "social fracture", placing himself more to the centre and thus forcing Balladur to radicalise himself. Elected as President of the Republic, he refused to discuss the existence of French military bases in Africa, despite requests by the Ministry of Defence and the Quai d'Orsay (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). The French Army thus remained in Côte d'Ivoire as well as in Omar Bongo's Gabon.
In 1997, Chirac dissolved parliament for early legislative elections in a gamble designed to bolster support for his conservative economic program. But instead, it created an uproar, and his power was weakened by the subsequent backlash. The Socialist Party (PS), 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 (1997–2002), which 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. Nevertheless, his position was weakened by scandals about the financing of RPR by Paris municipality.
As the Supreme Commander of the French armed forces, he reduced the French military budget, as did his predecessor. At the end of his first term it accounted for three percent of GDP.
At the age of 69, Chirac faced his fourth presidential campaign in 2002. He received 20% of the vote in the first ballot of the presidential elections in April 2002. It had been expected that he would face incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin (PS) in the second round of elections; instead, Chirac faced controversial far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen of National Front (FN) who came in 200, 000 votes ahead of Jospin. 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.
Along with Vladimir Putin (Chirac called Vladimir Putin "a personal friend"), Hu Jintao, and Gerhard Schröder, Chirac emerged as a leading voice against George W. Bush and Tony Blair in 2003 during the organization and deployment of American and British forces participating in a military coalition to forcibly remove the then current government of Iraq controlled by the Ba'ath Party under the leadership of Saddam Hussein which resulted in the 2003–2011 Iraq War.
Shortly after leaving office, he launched the Foundation Chirac in June 2008. Since then it has been striving for peace through five advocacy programmes: conflict prevention, access to water and sanitation, access to quality medicines and healthcare, access to land resources, and preservation of cultural diversity. As a former President, he is entitled to a lifetime pension and personal security protection, and is ex-officio a member for life of France's constitutional council.
Before 1962 he was a member of Communist Party, from 1962 to 1968 he was a member of Union for the New Republic, later - a member of Union of Democrats for the Republic, Rally for the Republic (1971–2002), Union for a Popular Movement (2002–2015) and finally he became a member of Republicans (2015–present)
As the President of France, Chirac faced the daunting challenge of restoring public confidence and generating higher levels of economic growth to decrease the country's alarming unemployment rate. In addition to creating more jobs, Chirac also promised to lower taxes, overhaul the education system, and create a volunteer army. The President also signalled his intention of continuing Mitterrand's move toward European integration and a single European currency. Chirac's popularity dropped, however, when, later in 1995, France restarted its nuclear weapons test program in the South Pacific. Over 20 countries officially protested, demonstrators across the globe took to the streets, and international boycotts of wine and other French products were erected. Riots erupted in Tahiti, near the test site, injuring 40 people and causing millions of dollars in property damage. Chirac defended his decision by claiming that Mitterrand had prematurely ceased testing during his term in office. Chirac promised, however, to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty provided the current round of testing offered sufficient data to make future computer simulations feasible.
Chirac supporters point out that, as mayor, he provided programmes to help the elderly, people with disabilities, and single mothers, and introduced the street-cleaning Motocrotte, while providing incentives for businesses to stay in Paris.
Quotations:
"These irresponsible acts, which cannot have any justification whatsoever, are to be fully condemned. In these appalling circumstances, I want to offer you the most sincere condolences, both in my name and in that of the French people."
"As soon as one nation claims the right to take preventive action, other countries will naturally do the same. If we go down that road, where are we going?"
"Terrorism has become the systematic weapon of a war that knows no borders or seldom has a face."
"National Missile Defense is of a nature to retrigger a proliferation of weapons, notably nuclear missiles. Everything that goes in the direction of proliferation is a bad direction."
"Romania and Bulgaria were particularly irresponsible. If they wanted to diminish their chances of joining Europe they could not have found a better way."
"They missed a great opportunity to shut up."
"France will insist on the need for updated and responsive institutions."
"When you are in the family... you have more rights than when you are asking to join and knocking on the door."
Physical Characteristics: Height: 1.89 M
Quotes from others about the person
The New York Times, speaking of Chirac, reported, "He prefers a cold Mexican beer to a glass of wine, and a genuine American meal like a hot turkey sandwich with gravy to a pseudo-Escoffier meal. While he strongly supports the law that requires French television stations to show mainly French films, friends say he would rather watch a Gary Cooper western than a mannered French romance. "
In 2006, The Economist wrote that Chirac "is the most unpopular occupant of the Elysée Palace in the fifth republic's history. "
In 1956, he married Bernadette Chodron de Courcel, with whom he had two daughters: Laurence (born 4 March 1958, deceased 14 April 2016) and Claude (6 December 1962). Claude has long worked as a public relations assistant and personal adviser, while Laurence, who suffered from anorexia nervosa in her youth, did not participate in the political activities of her father. Chirac is the grandfather of Martin Rey-Chirac by the relationship of Claude with French judoka Thierry Rey. Jacques and Bernadette Chirac also have a foster daughter, Anh Dao Traxel.