At the announcement of the death of François Mitterrand, January 8, 1996, he had, in an address remained famous, greeted the memory of his predecessor. Because if Jacques Chirac and François Mitterrand had clashed many times during their respective political careers, the two men had developed a relationship made of mutual respect, especially during an unprecedented cohabitation between 1986 and 1988. In 2009, during his last interview on the radio at the microphone of Europe 1, the former president of the Republic, who died Thursday at the age of 86, confirmed "keep a very good memory" of his relations with François Mitterrand, which he was Prime Minister.
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"François Mitterrand was a man of culture, who had openness and broadmindedness", then greeted Jacques Chirac, before returning to the period of cohabitation that opened in 1986, after the defeat of the left to the legislative. This cohabitation, he explained in this interview that Europe 1 rebroadcast in a special morning devoted to the former president, "I did not conceive, and he did not conceive, as a tension."
Strong historical discussions before the Council of Ministers
And, while their collaborators feared sharp clashes between the two men, the political rivalry gave way to constructive discussions between these two fans of history and culture, as in their meetings preceding the Council of Ministers. "For an hour, I explained to him what Asia was and he explained me the Europe of the 18th century," recollected Jacques Chirac.
"We fought each other, Mitterrand was my opponent," Jacques Chirac admitted. But, he added immediately, "we can fight an adversary and despise him, or fight him and estimate him, I had esteem for François Mitterrand". And the former president to quote his political commonalities with his predecessor: "we had in common the defense of fundamental values of our civilization, and these values, it is the refusal of ethnic and religious hatreds, the deep respect of the other, and finally the rule of law over force ".