Politics & Power Quote by Jacques Chirac

Chirac’s line is built like a warning siren: the real danger of terrorism isn’t only the body count, it’s the historical regression it can trigger inside democracies that pride themselves on being “beyond” barbarism. The phrase “ages we thought were long gone” isn’t nostalgia; it’s an accusation. Modern Europe likes to narrate itself as post-violence, post-empire, post-sectarian bloodletting. Chirac punctures that complacency, reminding listeners that progress is a political choice, not a permanent upgrade.

The key move is the conditional: “if we allow it a free hand.” He’s shifting agency back onto governments and citizens. Terrorists commit atrocities, but democracies can still choose whether to let fear rewrite the rules. “Corrupt democratic societies” suggests the slow, legalistic rot: emergency powers that stick, surveillance that normalizes, minority communities treated as suspect populations, public debate narrowed to security theater. The subtext is clear: the terrorist wins twice if a state responds by degrading its own legitimacy.

Chirac also widens the frame to “the basic rules of international life,” a statesman’s shorthand for norms like sovereignty, proportionality, and cooperation. Coming from a French president in the post-9/11 era, with Europe confronting mass-casualty attacks and the U.S. launching a war in Iraq, it reads as both solidarity and restraint. He’s arguing that the West’s strategic response is part of the battlefield: abandon law and you don’t just chase terrorists; you help resurrect the very lawlessness you claim to oppose.