Jacques Chirac's second term as President of France
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Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
faced his fourth campaign for the French Presidency
President of the French Republic
The President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State....
in 2002. He was the first choice of fewer than one voter in five in the first round of voting of the presidential elections of April 2002. It had been expected that he would face incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin
Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002. He was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995...
on the second round of elections; instead, Chirac faced controversial far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
politician Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
of the law-and-order, anti-immigrant National Front, and won re-election by a landslide; most parties outside the National Front had called for opposing Le Pen, even if it meant voting for Chirac. Slogans such as "vote for the crook, not for the fascist" or "vote with a clothespin on your nose" appeared.
"We must reject extremism in the name of the honour 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."
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
(UMP). The RPR had broken down - a number of members had formed Eurosceptic
EuroSceptic
EuroSceptic is the second album of British singer Jack Lucien. It was released in October 2009.Due to being an album influenced by Europop, it features songs with parts in different languages...
breakaways. While the Giscardian liberals of the Union of French Democracy (UDF
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's...
) had moved sharply to the right. The UMP won the parliamentary elections that followed the presidential poll with ease.
On 14 July 2002, during Bastille Day
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July of each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale and commonly le quatorze juillet...
celebrations, Chirac survived an assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
attempt by a lone gunman with a rifle hidden in a guitar case. The would-be assassin fired a shot toward the presidential motorcade
Motorcade
A motorcade is a procession of vehicles. The term motorcade was coined by Lyle Abbot , and is formed after cavalcade on the false notion that "-cade" was a suffix meaning "procession"...
, before being overpowered by bystanders. The gunman, Maxime Brunerie
Maxime Brunerie
Maxime Brunerie is a man who attempted to assassinate French President Jacques Chirac on July 14, 2002 in Paris, during the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Élysées....
, underwent psychiatric
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
testing; the violent far-right group with which he was associated, Unité Radicale
Unité Radicale
Unité Radicale was a French far-right political group close to the Third Position and National Bolshevism thesis. It was founded in June 1998 from the merger of Groupe Union Défense and Nouvelle Résistance/Jeune Résistance/Union des Cercles Résistance, issued from Nouvelle Résistance, and dissolved...
was then administratively dissolved. Brunerie had also been a candidate for the Mouvement National Républicain a far-right party at a local election. Brunerie's trial for attempted murder began on December 6, 2004; a crucial question was whether the court found that Brunerie's capacity for rational thought was absent (see insanity defence
Insanity defence
In criminal trials, the insanity defense is where the defendant claims that he or she was not responsible for his or her actions due to mental health problems . The exemption of the insane from full criminal punishment dates back to at least the Code of Hammurabi. There are different views of the...
) or merely altered. On December 10, the court, exceeding the sentence pushed for by the prosecution, sentenced Brunerie to 10 years in prison.
Chirac emerged as a leading voice against US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
president George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's administration's conduct towards Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. Despite intense U.S. pressure, Chirac threatened to veto, at that given point, a resolution in the U.N. Security Council that would authorize the use of military force to rid Iraq of alleged weapons of mass destruction, and rallied other governments to his position. Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, another permanent UN Security Council member, said it, too, would use its veto against such a resolution, (cf. Governments' pre-war positions on invasion of Iraq and Protests against the 2003 Iraq war). "Iraq today does not represent an immediate threat that justifies an immediate war", Chirac said on March 18, 2003. Chirac was then the target of various American and British commentators supporting the decisions of president Bush and prime minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
. See also anti-French sentiment in the United States
Anti-French sentiment in the United States
Anti-French sentiment in the United States is the manifestation of Francophobia by Americans. It signifies a consistent hostility toward the government, culture, and people of France that employs stereotypes.-Understanding anti-French sentiments:...
. Suspected French involvement in "under the table" deals with Saddam Hussein have led many supporters of the war to question Chirac's motives in opposing the invasion of Iraq.
During a state visit to the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
on April 21, 2005 Chirac's Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin is a French conservative politician and senator for Vienne.Jean-Pierre Raffarin served as the Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005, resigning after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. However, after Raffarin...
lent support to the new Anti-Secession Law
Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China
The Anti-Secession Law is a law of the People's Republic of China. It was passed by the third conference of the 10th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China . It was ratified on March 14, 2005, and went into effect immediately. Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of...
, which justified an invasion of Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
by the PRC in the event of a declaration of Taiwan independence
Taiwan independence
Taiwan independence is a political movement whose goals are primarily to formally establish the Republic of Taiwan by renaming or replacing the Republic of China , form a Taiwanese national identity, reject unification and One country, two systems with the People's Republic of China and a Chinese...
, and continued to push for a lift of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
arms embargo against China. France's position was seen as attempting to aid China in altering the balance of power against the U.S. in East Asia, in which the control of Taiwan is of utmost importance. This drew widespread condemnation from the U.S. which responded by threatening sanctions against the EU unless the embargo was continued.
On 29 May 2005 a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
was held in France to decide whether the country should ratify the proposed Constitution of the European Union. The result was a victory for the No campaign, with 55% of voters rejecting the treaty on a turnout of 69%, dealing a devastating blow to Chirac and the UMP
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
party. Chirac's decision to hold a referendum was thought to have been influenced in part by the surprise announcement that the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
was to hold a vote of its own. Although the adoption of a Constitution had initially been played down as a 'tidying-up' exercise with no need for a popular vote, as increasing numbers of EU member states announced their intention to hold a referendum, the French government came under increasing pressure to follow suit.
French voters turned down the proposed document by a wide margin, which was interpreted by some as a rebuke to Chirac and his government. Two days later, Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin is a French conservative politician and senator for Vienne.Jean-Pierre Raffarin served as the Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005, resigning after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. However, after Raffarin...
resigned and Chirac appointed Dominique de Villepin
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....
as Prime Minister of France
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
.
In an address to the nation, Chirac has declared that the new cabinet's top priority would be to curb the unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
level, which consistently hovers above 10%, calling for a "national mobilization" to that effect. One of the main promises of Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Jean-Pierre Raffarin is a French conservative politician and senator for Vienne.Jean-Pierre Raffarin served as the Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005, resigning after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. However, after Raffarin...
when he became Prime Minister had been to spur growth and that "the end of President Chirac's term would be marked by a drop in unemployment". However, at the time of his dismissal, no such improvement could be seen. Villepin set himself a deadline of a hundred days to restore the French people's trust in their government (note that Villepin's first published book was titled The Hundred Days or the Spirit of Sacrifice).
2012 Olympics
Chirac became the subject of controversy the day before the International Olympic CommitteeInternational Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
was due to pick a host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...
. Chirac made comments stating that "the only worse food than British food is Finnish" and "the only thing the British have done for Europe's agriculture is mad cow disease". Not only were Chirac's comments considered unsportsmanlike where the normal etiquette is not to criticize rival cities, there was also the presence of two Finnish members on the International Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
who would vote in the final ballot. Out of the competing candidate cities, the bid
Paris 2012 Olympic bid
Paris 2012 was an unsuccessful bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games to be held in Paris. The bidding race was eventually won by the London 2012 bid after a 54-50 vote of the International Olympic Committee on 6 July 2005...
was widely acknowledged as the front runner but Paris's narrow loss to arch-rival London
London 2012 Olympic bid
London 2012 was the successful bid for the 2012 Summer Games, to be held in London with most events taking place in Stratford, Newham. The British Olympic Association had been working on the bid since 1997...
led many to believe that Chirac's comments were at fault. It seems that the French public laid the blame of the failure on president Chirac, and not on the Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë
Bertrand Delanoë
Bertrand Delanoë is a French politician, and has been the mayor of Paris since 2001. He is member of the Socialist Party . Delanoë was born in Tunis, Tunisia to a French-Tunisian father and a French mother...
, whose popularity had in fact risen according to polls.
Even longtime Chirac supporters had lost their faith. Jean-Louis Debré
Jean-Louis Debré
Jean-Louis Debré is a conservative French political figure. He was President of the National Assembly of France from 2002 to 2007 and has been President of the Constitutional Council since 2007.-Biography:Debré was born in Toulouse...
, president of the National Assembly
French National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....
and a faithful Chirac supporter, declared "I'm not sure that Jacques Chirac succeeded in his presidency. I'd at least like that he succeeds in his exit."
According to a July 2005 poll, 32% judge Jacques Chirac favorably and 63% unfavorably.
It is unclear whether Jacques Chirac will run for a third mandate in 2007
French presidential election, 2007
The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy...
and, should he not run or should he fail in a re-election bid, whether he risks prosecution and jail time for the various fraudulent schemes he has been named in. While he is currently immune from prosecution as a president, prescription (i.e. the statute of limitations
Statute of limitations
A statute of limitations is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated...
) does not apply. His authority was seriously weakened by the October-November 2005 Paris suburb riots in which hundreds of cars and numerous warehouses were set alight throughout France by thousands of alienated North African immigrants who complain of widespread discrimination and unemployment. The riots were triggered by the accidental deaths of two North African immigrants in a poor Paris suburb named Clichy-sous-Bois
Clichy-sous-Bois
Clichy-sous-Bois is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. The vast majority of its population is made up of Muslims of North African heritage . It is located from the centre of Paris.-Geography:The commune has an area of with of woods...
who were rumoured to be fleeing from police. Chirac later acknowledged that France had not done enough to integrate its Muslim North African citizens into French society or combat racism.
One issue seen of increasing importance with respect to a possible 2007 re-election bid is Jacques Chirac's age and health. Chirac has often been described to be extremely resilient and hard-working, and to have conserved a legendary appetite; before 2005, he had never had major health problems throughout his long political career. He used to be a heavy smoker but had given up many years ago. Nevertheless, it has become apparent that he is also careful of hiding signs that may betray declining health. In October 2003, there was an intense debate about French leaders' tradition of keeping secret their medical problems (for example Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
's cancer was hidden for 14 years) : Jacques Chirac has gone slightly deaf in one ear, and a former Environment Minister Roselyne Bachelot had revealed that a small hearing aid had been fitted discreetly into Mr Chirac's left ear. This debate leading to accusations of secrecy and speculation emerged once again in September 2005 when Chirac following a suspected stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
( which provoked "slight impairment in his field of vision"). making it increasingly unlikely that he will run for a third term in 2007 and stoking the undeclared succession battle between Villepin and Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
(Villepin was appointed to serve in Chirac's place in the United Nations 2005 World Summit
2005 World Summit
The 2005 World Summit, 14–16 September 2005, was a follow-up summit meeting to the United Nations' 2000 Millennium Summit, which led to the Millennium Declaration of the Millennium Development Goals...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
).
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
against any country that sponsors a terrorist attack against French interests. He said his country's nuclear arsenal
Force de frappe
The Force de Frappe is the designation of what used to be a triad of air-, sea- and land-based nuclear weapons intended for dissuasion, and consequential deterrence...
had been reconfigured to include the ability to make a tactical strike in retaliation for terrorism.
On March 17, 2006, Chirac, was involved in a controversy over a youth employment law after protests in Paris against the measure ended in violence and 187 arrests.
Unions and student groups were reported to be planning further action , claiming up to 600,000 university and high school students took part in Thursday's action. They have tied any talks to withdrawal of the employment law, which is opposed by 68% of French people, according to an opinion poll published in Le Parisien
Le Parisien
Le Parisien is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It was established as Le Parisien libéré by Émilien Amaury in 1944, and the name was changed to the current one in 1986...
newspaper , a rise of 13 percentage points in a week. Critics say the legal reform will create a generation of "disposable workers", but ministers tried to conciliate growing opposition, one saying no worker could be laid off without justification. The first employment contract (CPE) was designed to cut youth unemployment by allowing employers to dismiss workers under 26 within their first two years in a job. This led to a turn around by Chrirac and his Prime Minister on the April 10th saying the controversial law was to be scrapped. Chirac took the unprecedented step of signing the bill into law while at the same time calling for not applying the CPE clauses, a move with no base in the French Constitution. Stating the 'palpable discontent' in his country Chirac promised a more popular law would be enacted.
During April and May 2006, President Chirac's administration has been beset by a crisis as his chosen Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, was accused of asking General Rondot, a top level French spy, of asking for a secret investigation into the latter's chief political rival, Nicolas Sarkozy in 2004. This matter has been called the Clearstream Affair
Clearstream affair
The "Clearstream affair" was a political scandal in France in the run-up to the 2007 presidential election.The name refers to the Luxembourg bank Clearstream Banking S.A., now wholly owned by Deutsche Börse, which was alleged to have aided many prominent French politicians and companies evade taxes...
. On May 10, 2006, following a Cabinet meeting, Chirac made a rare television appearance to try to protect Prime Minister Villepin from the scandal and to debunk allegations that Chirac himself had set up a Japanese bank account containing 300 million francs in 1992 as Mayor of Paris. Chirac stated that "The Republic is not a dictatorship of rumours, a dictatorship of calumny." Some political commentators note that the president's authority and credibility is in serious decline due to this scandal and combined impact of the French voters rejection of the European Union constitution in May 2005 which Chirac had publicly championed.
In July 2006, the G8 meets to discuss international energy concerns. Despite the rising awareness of global warming issues, the G8 focuses on "energy security
Energy security
Energy security is a term for an association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Access to cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven distribution of energy supplies among countries has led...
" issues. President Chirac continues to be the voice within the G8 summit meetings to support international action to curb global warming and climate change concerns. Chirac warns that "humanity is dancing on a volcano" and calls for serious action by the world's leading industrialized nations.