The family of Jacques Chirac announced Thursday the death of the former French president, at the age of 86 years. The reactions are numerous, and not only in the political sphere.

REACTION

Former President Jacques Chirac died Thursday morning at the age of 86. Since then, dozens of tributes, in France, in the world, of people he has met, friends and political enemies, multiply.

The "emotion" of Édouard Balladur

Former Prime Minister Édouard Balladur, has learned "with emotion" the death of Jacques Chirac "after so many years of suffering," announced Thursday his entourage. The former prime minister (1993-1995), Gaullist like Jacques Chirac, had been his unhappy rival in the 1995 presidential election, after having been close to him for a long time in the RPR.

"The Gaullist family is losing one of its greatest inspirers, and my tremendous grief is commensurate with the respect, admiration and affection I felt for him," writes Christian Jacob, president of the group Les Républicains à la National Assembly and historical Chirac, on Twitter.

Like him, many were the young wolves in politics that Jacques Chirac took under his wing over the years. Renaud Muselier (LR) is also part of it. At the microphone of Europe 1, he greeted a "great visionary", a man "exceptional" and "endearing".

François Hollande greets "a fighter"

Reactions are also numerous outside his political family. Former Socialist President François Hollande hailed Jacques Chirac as "a fighter" who "knew how to establish a personal bond with the French". Laurent Fabius, president of the Constitutional Council and former Socialist Minister for Foreign Affairs, spoke of a former president who "did not stop being in love with the Republic and serving it". Anne Hidalgo, socialist mayor of Paris, a seat that had occupied Jacques Chirac between 1977 and 1995, said "deeply moved and saddened".