Biography of Jacques Chirac

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November 29, 1932
Jacques Chirac was born on November 29, 1932 in Paris. An Executive's son, he studied at the prestigious National School of administration in Strasbourg and began his political career in the years ' 60, inspired by the charismatic figure of De Gaulle. In a short time he became Assistant of President Georges Pompidou (successor of De Gaulle), and in 1974 he was appointed Prime Minister Giscard. Bernadette Chodron de Courcel, wedding in 1956 known Chirac Paris Institute of political studies, with whom he has two daughters, Laurence and Claude, the latter responsible for years of public relations of the father. In 1976 he founded the rally for the Republic (Rassemblement pour la République, RPR), grouping right born from the ashes of the Gaullist Party, the Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR). From 1977 to 1995 Chirac was Mayor of Paris, except for a break of two years, from 1986 to 1988, where he was appointed Prime Minister by Mitterrand, after the victory of his party in renewal of the Nation Assembly. After the departure of Mitterrand, the presidential elections of 1995, Jacques Chirac is elected at the helm of France. The early years of Chirac are marked by a series of major reforms, both in the economic and socially.
One of the first measures taken in fact is the limitation of the presidential term from seven to five years. Meanwhile, under pressure from the Prime Minister, the Socialist Lionel Jospin, Chirac reduces the weekly working time of workers, from 38 to 37 hours. In 1999 France also is among the first countries in Europe to introduce a form of contract that regulates de facto unions, even when dealing with people of the same sex, the so-called P.A.C.S. (Civil solidarity Pacts). The presidential elections of 2002 returns with a new party, the Union for a popular movement (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire UMP), where the different souls of the centre right, United by the Gaullist tradition. But an unexpected political upheaval sweeping the country: in the first round the candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the extreme right-wing party, national front, gets an avalanche of votes, while the former Prime Minister, Mr Jospin, scraping together a meager 15%, is deleted.
The challenge in the second round is between the outgoing President and the ultranationalist candidate. To prevent the possible victory of Le Pen, the French left is launching a massive campaign in favour of Chirac, who gets the second term with 82 percent of the vote. Once at the Elysee for the second time, the popularity of the President is putting into crisis by a series of missteps and mishaps since the riot of the Banlieue, in late 2005, when social and ethnic tensions deteriorated in Paris suburbs lead to an all-out urban warfare between immigrants and law enforcement. On September 2, 2005, moreover, Chirac was hit by a mild stroke that forced him to a week's hospital stay. During the first months of 2006 its popularity collapses again, when the Government of Loyalist Dominique de Villepin proposes a new contractual formula, the CPE (Contrat première embauche, first employment contract), introducing a form of precariousness in France for young people entering the labour market. It unleashes an authentic uprising, with more than three million protesters, and on 10 April of the same year, Chirac was forced to withdraw the CPE. On the international front criticism hard military intervention in Iraq wanted by the Bush administration.
A position underlined by a famous phrase uttered in 2005 when speaking of the British says: "you can't trust people whose cousins are so bad", obviously the indirect reference is to the Americans. The March 11, 2007 Chirac Announces, in a message to the nation broadcast live on television, his intention not to stand for a third time in the elections of 2007, and a few days later, hereby support the candidacy of Nicolas Sarkozy. Since the end of the years ' 90 the President imposed several corruption charges, referring to the years when Chirac was Mayor of Paris: according to investigators would use public money to fund his party, indeed the RDP, and to maintain the high standard of living for his family. In 2003, the Socialist Mayor of Paris, the thrust of Bertrand Delanoë, Judge Philippe Courroye opened a civil trial against his wife Bernadette, accused of having her husband spent 14 million Swiss francs (about 700 euros) per day for extra services during your stay at the capital's City Hall. Chirac instead, thanks to an extraordinary Constitutional Council, unable to benefit from immunity, lapsed in 2007, when renunciation of candidacy.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.