Jacques Chirac Biography Quotes 14 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Jacques Rene Chirac was born on November 29, 1932, in Paris, and became one of the defining figures of modern French politics. He grew up with strong ties to the rural department of Correze, which later became the heart of his electoral base. After studies at Sciences Po, he entered the elite National School of Administration (ENA), a path typical of postwar French state leaders. He completed compulsory military service and served in North Africa during the era of the Algerian War, an experience that left him with a durable interest in defense and national service. In 1956 he married Bernadette Chodron de Courcel, whose steady public presence and later charitable work made her one of the most visible political spouses in France. They had two daughters, Laurence and Claude; Claude Chirac would eventually become one of her father's most trusted advisers and communicators at the Elysee Palace.

Entry into Public Service and Early Political Career
Chirac began his career as a senior civil servant before moving into politics in the 1960s. He rose rapidly through junior ministerial posts in governments shaped by Charles de Gaulle and, especially, Georges Pompidou, who became a political mentor. Chirac's reputation for hard work, directness, and organizational energy earned him the nickname of a tireless doer. He cultivated relationships across the Gaullist movement and built ties to Correze, where he would be repeatedly elected to parliament.

Prime Minister and the Founding of the RPR
In 1974 Valery Giscard d Estaing, newly elected President of the Republic, appointed Chirac prime minister. The partnership proved uneasy. Chirac resigned in 1976 claiming he lacked the means to pursue his policies. He immediately built an independent party, the Rally for the Republic (RPR), to consolidate the Gaullist right around his leadership. In forging that movement he depended on future heavyweights such as Alain Juppe, who became one of his closest allies.

Mayor of Paris
Chirac became the first Mayor of Paris in the modern era in 1977, a post he held until 1995. He presided over the capital's modernization, neighborhood improvements, and ambitious public works, while using the city hall as a base to extend his national reach. The Paris years also produced political networks that later drew scrutiny. His successor at city hall, Jean Tiberi, kept many of those networks intact, and investigations into Paris finances followed Chirac into his presidency and beyond.

Return to Government and the 1988 Presidential Bid
After years leading the opposition, Chirac entered the Matignon Palace again as prime minister in 1986 during France's first "cohabitation" with Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. He pursued liberalization and privatizations in a divided political context. In 1988 he ran for the presidency but lost to Mitterrand, a setback that did not end his ambitions but encouraged a measured rebuilding of his alliances on the right.

1995 Presidential Victory and First Term
Chirac won the presidency in 1995, campaigning on the need to address the "social fracture" that, in his view, threatened cohesion in France. He initially appointed Alain Juppe as prime minister. Juppe's reform agenda, especially on pensions and public spending, met fierce resistance, culminating in massive strikes in late 1995. Internationally, Chirac authorized the resumption of nuclear tests in the Pacific in 1995 before ending them and aligning France with the global test ban, a sequence that sparked controversy but closed a chapter in French nuclear doctrine.

A landmark moment came in July 1995 when he publicly acknowledged the responsibility of the French state in the Vel d Hiv roundup of Jews in 1942, a break with decades of official ambiguity and a turning point in France's memory of the Holocaust. Chirac also initiated the shift to a professional army by ending peacetime conscription, a reform rolled out over the following years.

Seeking a stronger mandate, Chirac dissolved the National Assembly in 1997. The decision backfired, delivering a left-wing majority and a second cohabitation under Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. During this period the euro was launched at the European level, and Chirac supported European monetary integration while navigating domestic constraints. He also backed the 2000 reform reducing the French presidential term from seven to five years.

Second Term, Domestic Challenges, and Cohabitation s Aftermath
In 2002 Chirac was reelected in extraordinary circumstances. After the first-round elimination of Jospin, he faced Jean-Marie Le Pen in the runoff and won by a landslide, supported by a broad republican front. He named Jean-Pierre Raffarin as prime minister, later replaced by Dominique de Villepin in 2005. The early 2000s were marked by significant strains: the 2003 heatwave exposed weaknesses in public health preparedness; urban unrest in 2005 highlighted deep social inequalities and tensions; and an attempt to liberalize youth employment contracts in 2006 triggered massive protests and the withdrawal of the measure.

In 2005 the proposed European Constitutional Treaty was rejected in a national referendum, a serious blow to European ambitions and to Chirac's political authority. His domestic position also weakened after a minor stroke in 2005. By 2007, he chose not to run again, and Nicolas Sarkozy, once an ally within the RPR and later the UMP, succeeded him as president.

Foreign Policy and Global Standing
Chirac positioned France as a proactive but independent actor on the world stage. He cultivated close ties with German leaders from Helmut Kohl to Gerhard Schroder, sustaining the Franco-German engine of European integration. He frequently worked with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on European and Atlantic matters while maintaining disagreements, notably over Iraq. His most prominent international stance came in 2003, when he opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq championed by President George W. Bush and backed by Blair. French diplomacy, voiced memorably by Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin at the United Nations alongside Secretary-General Kofi Annan, argued for inspections and containment over war. The position strained transatlantic relations temporarily but resonated with many at home and abroad.

Chirac also invested in cultural diplomacy, championing the arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The Quai Branly museum in Paris, opened during his presidency, symbolized this commitment. On the environment, he captured global attention at the 2002 Johannesburg summit with the warning, Our house is burning and we are looking elsewhere.

Allies, Rivals, and Political Style
Chirac's political world mixed durable loyalty and intense rivalry. Alain Juppe remained a confidant across decades; Dominique de Villepin emerged as a dramatic defender of French positions; and Jean-Pierre Raffarin stewarded difficult domestic periods. Edouard Balladur, once a close collaborator, became a rival in the 1995 presidential race. On the left, Francois Mitterrand and Lionel Jospin were his principal adversaries; on the nationalist right, Jean-Marie Le Pen was the foil of the 2002 election. His relationship with Nicolas Sarkozy evolved from mentorship to competition as the post-Gaullist right reorganized under the UMP. Through these cycles, Chirac maintained an affable public style, a taste for retail politics, and a resilience that allowed him to outlast many contemporaries.

Legal Challenges and Later Years
After leaving office, Chirac's long-gestating legal troubles came to a conclusion. In 2011 he received a suspended sentence in a case involving misuse of public funds related to his tenure as Mayor of Paris. By then his health had declined, and he did not personally attend the trial. Despite the conviction, affection for him among the public remained strong, forged by decades of visibility, a perceived human warmth, and the memory of unifying moments.

Bernadette Chirac continued her charitable work, notably in support of hospitals, while Claude Chirac remained close to her father as a protector and adviser in his later years. Jacques Chirac died on September 26, 2019, in Paris. Tributes from across the political spectrum in France and abroad reflected his stature as a statesman who embodied both the continuity and the transformations of the Fifth Republic.

Legacy
Chirac's legacy blends institutional reform, a distinctive international voice, and a complex domestic record. He helped modernize the presidency with the five-year term, ended conscription, and left a mark on cultural policy through the Quai Branly museum. He presided over both deep social tensions and moments of national unity, from the 2002 election to the public recognition of historical responsibility for the Vel d Hiv. Internationally, his Iraq stance and commitment to multilateralism became defining; in Europe, he was a pragmatic builder who nonetheless confronted the limits of public consent in the 2005 referendum. His long arc from Gaullist apprentice under Georges Pompidou to elder statesman at the close of the 2000s situates him among the central figures of the Fifth Republic, a politician whose durability and instinct for the country's mood left an enduring imprint on France.

Our collection contains 14 quotes who is written by Jacques, under the main topics: Justice - Peace - Sarcastic - War - Family.