Biography
French politician elected President in 1995 and again in 2002. He served as Prime
Minister from 1974-76 and from 1986-88 and as Mayor of Paris from 1977-1995. His long
political career includes service from the municipal to the national level in
elected positions as well as political appointments.
Chirac was the only child of an aircraft company executive and a homemaker. He
spent his summers in the serene southwestern area of France visiting relatives. After
working on a cargo ship for a summer, he earned his degree in political science at the
prestigious Institut d'Éudes Politiques. In 1953, at age 20, he won a scholarship to
study at Harvard for the summer, working part time in a sandwich shop. He read history
and poetry, and was fascinated by Chinese and Japanese civilizations. Though he had
already met his future wife, Bernadette Chodron de Courcel, he had a romance
with an heiress from South Carolina. She called him "honey child," and chauffeured him
in a white Cadillac. Chirac returned to Paris to marry Bernadette on March 16, 1956. To
this day, she is his biggest supporter.
After serving in the French army in 1956, he attended L'École Nationale d'Administration,
the training ground for the elite of France's civil servants. Thin, nervous and fast-talking,
his political career was launched in 1962 when he landed a position in the office of Georges
Pompidou, then Charles de Gaulle's Prime Minister. In 1967, he was elected to the national
assembly and, a year later, was appointed to the Ministry of Economics and Finance. In 1972,
he was named to the post of Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and in 1974 he
became Minister of the Interior. Soon after, his patron Georges Pompidou died and Chirac
was named Prime Minister by the new President, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. In 1976, Chirac
resigned from office because of political differences with the President and formed his own
party, the RPR (Rally for the Republic).
Elected Mayor of Paris the following year, Chirac held that post until 1995. In the meantime,
his political influence on the increase, Chirac became Prime Minister for the second time,
serving under President François Mitterand from March 20, 1986 until May 12, 1988.
As the mayor of Paris, Chirac had overridden a ban on a 1987 Madonna concert after listening
to her music. The singer later kissed him on both cheeks and donated the proceeds to AIDS research.
In 1995 Chirac made a third attempt to become President, with his most trusted aide, his daughter
Claude, stage-managing his campaign. Her hard work and his backing of the Madonna concert helped him
capture the support of youthful voters. Chirac's victory ended 14 years of socialist rule. As president,
he had promised to reduce France's 12% rate of unemployment by offering tax breaks to businesses hiring
new employees. Chirac enjoyed glamorizing his public persona, and remained close friends with Gregory
Peck until the actor's death. Despite his native intelligence, he does not want to be viewed as an intellectual
but a man of the people. Known as "le bulldozer" for his fierce determination, Chirac is not known for his
diplomatic skills. "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 cited in Wikipedia.
Chirac's name has occasionally been mired in scandal, including allegations of illegal party financing while
he was Mayor of Paris and charges that he received favors from Saddam Hussein. But in 2002 he was seen as one of
the most powerful political leaders in recent French history. As the leaders of the United States and Great Britain
advocated war on Iraq, Chirac spoke for his country in mid-March 2003, insisting that "Iraq does not represent today
an immediate threat that would justify an immediate war." Although 80% of the French population praised his stance,
by 2005 his political leverage had declined. By summer that year, his approval rate was as low as 39%. In autumn 2005,
an impoverished immigrant population, feeling disenfranchised by lack of employment and supportive government policies,
began rioting and car-burning. Chirac's campaign promises had not been fulfilled, and France's high numbers of jobless and
a sluggish economy were laid at his door. The President was accused of being slow to respond to the increasing level of
violence that seemed to permeate the country.
Chirac's personal life has also seen ups and downs. Depression and anorexia have plagued his eldest daughter Laurence,
a physician, and in April 1990, she tried to commit suicide by jumping out of a fourth floor window. In 1992, Claude's husband,
Philippe Habert, was found dead from a sleeping pill overdose. The public was hardly aware that in 1979, the Chiracs adopted a
22-year-old woman named Anh Dao. She arrived in Paris via a city-sponsored program. Two years later, Chirac presided over her
marriage to Hua Dong, a municipal employee. Their son, Bernard Jacques, is named in honor of his grandfather. On July 14, 2002
in Paris, at about 9:55 Am MEDT, an extremely disturbed neo-Nazi made an assassination attempt, pulling a rifle from a guitar case
and firing one round at Chirac's motorcade before being subdued. The shooter was captured and identified as Maxime Brunerie, born
May 21, 1977 in Evry, Essonne. From September 2-9, 2005, President Chirac was hospitalized in Paris with a vascular problem affecting
his eyesight. Though details remained sketchy, CNN reported that he had suffered a hematoma, a blood clot resulting from a break in a
blood vessel wall. His health has been cited as one more obstacle for him to overcome if he decides to seek a mandate in 2007.
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