By Christophe BoisbouvierTirthankar ChandaPosted on 26-09-2019Modified on 26-09-2019 at 14:29
All the French presidents are at one point in their mandate with the adjective "Africain" attached to their name. "De Gaulle the African", "Mitterrand the African", "Sarkozy the African". Of the six presidents of the Fifth Republic, nobody deserved this nickname as much as Jacques Chirac, for whom close personal ties with the leaders were an important dimension of his African policy. On this subject, interview with Christophe Boisbouvier, journalist specializing in Africa and author himself of the book Holland l'Africain.
When did Jacques Chirac go to Africa for the first time?
Jacques Chirac went very young to Algeria. Three times. A first time as a tourist, in the early 1950s, a second time between 1956 and 1957, as a private and then officer, during the Algerian war, and a third time between 1959 and 1960, as a young high-ranking official , still during the Algerian war. On the other hand, he did not go to sub-Saharan Africa until much later. His first known visit took place in Chad in 1976. As prime minister of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, he was received by President Félix Malloum and signed with him a Franco-Chadian defense agreement. At the same time, during a visit to Tripoli, in March 1976 more precisely, he met Colonel Gaddafi, with whom he had a very long tête-à-tête. It was also during this first visit to Matignon (1974-1976) that he established a lasting relationship with King Hassan II of Morocco. But it was only after his election to the mayor of Paris in 1977, and after the creation of the International Association of Mayors of France (AIMF), in 1979, that he will multiply travel in Africa.
But African affairs are complicated. Where does his taste for Africa come from ?
Thanks to Jacques Foccart, who introduced him to African affairs. Foccart was General de Gaulle's Mr. Africa. In the first volume of his memoirs , whose subtitle Each step must be a goal (Nil, 2009), Chirac recounts that one day in 1969, he attended a meeting in Paris between Foccart and the Central African President Jean- Bedel Bokassa. " Stop calling the General" daddy ", that annoys him, " says Foccart to Bokassa ... When Chirac appears in the 1981 presidential election against Giscard and Mitterrand, he asks Foccart to put him in touch with leaders of African states likely to help him finance his campaign. The first Chirac-Bongo meeting took place in October 1980 at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris. 28 years later, in 2009, Giscard will say on Europe 1 that the petrodollars of the Gabonese president Omar Bongo arrived at the time in the coffers of the candidate Chirac. And after his victory in the legislative elections of 1986, when Chirac returns to Matignon, he asks Foccart to follow him to counter the African policy of Mitterrand. Another Chirac mentor, Ivorian President Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Often at this time, Chirac goes to Abidjan to consult "the old man ". It is also after one of these interviews that he will say one of his biggest blunders. In February 1990, in the middle of a national conference in Benin, he declared in Abidjan, at the microphone of RFI, that multipartism is a " kind of luxury " for African countries.
Chirac knew African leaders well. You say in your book Hollande l'Africain (La Découverte, 2015) that he had an emotional connection with the continent and its leaders. What leaders he was the closest?
For Chirac, " friendship " was an added value in politics. When an African president showed good intentions towards France, he tried to make it a " friend ". And the more influential the head of state was, the more Chirac cultivated his relationship with him. Hence the great " friendships " Chirac-Houphouet and Chirac-Bongo. The former French president also called himself the " great friend " of the Togolese Gnassingbé Eyadema and the Congolese Denis Sassou Nguesso. With former Senegalese President Abdou Diouf, the " friendly " relationship continued after Chirac's departure from the Elysee Palace. Indeed, Diouf has joined the Fondation Chirac for sustainable development and the dialogue of cultures. And when, April 26, 2008, Diouf " married " one of his daughters in Paris, the mayor of the 7th arrondissement, the couple Chirac moved. Another head of state for whom Chirac had a real affection - almost paternal - King Mohamed VI of Morocco. On the death of his father Hassan II, in 1999, Chirac guided his first steps on the international scene. And in return, when the young king decided to take a wife, he introduced his fiancée to Chirac before everyone else.
Jacques Chirac, who liked to present himself as the heir of Gaullism, had he pursued De Gaulle's African policy or had he tried to print a break with the traditional French politics of the African pre-square ?
For Chirac as for Foccart, an African people was incarnated in its leader, whoever it may be. Relations between France and Africa were therefore based on a man-to-man relationship, a personalized relationship between two heads of state. And as he always preferred the pre-square, a good African president was in his eyes a friendly president of France and himself. For him, respect for democracy and human rights was therefore not a priority. He liked this joke: " We must let the African presidents win the elections, otherwise they will not organize any more. And all Tunisians remember his little phrase, during a visit to the very authoritarian Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, in December 2003: " The first human rights is to eat and be treated. Amazing coincidence: the two friends, the Tunisian and the French, disappear within a few days of each other. Where Chirac innovated is on economic issues. From the summit in Evian in June 2003, he imposed on the American George W. Bush the presence of Africans in the G8 and fought for the creation of a solidarity tax on airline tickets , the "Chirac tax". He has also worked hard for Unitaid, a device to facilitate access to medicines for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. After leaving the Elysee Palace in May 2007, he and his foundation also mobilized against the trafficking of fake medicines in Africa. On the African scene, Chirac was backward in politics and precursor in economics.
The name Chirac is associated with Françafrique. What role has President Chirac played in this hidden network of business, corruption and influence-peddling?
Obviously, an important role. As we have seen, Chirac finances part of its 1981 campaign with Gabonese money - at least according to Giscard d'Estaing. Does he do the same for his 1988 and 1995 campaigns? We do not know. But for the 2002 campaign, two testimonies indicate that Africa has become for him a "cash machine ". In September 2011, in the Journal du
Sunday, Chirac lawyer Robert Bourgi - one of Jacques Foccart's followers in Africa - reveals that for this 2002 campaign, Chirac received a total of $ 10 million in cash from five heads of state Africans: Senegalese Abdoulaye Wade, Burkinabe Blaise Compaore, Ivorian Laurent Gbagbo, Congolese Denis Sassou Nguesso and, of course, Gabonese Omar Bongo. According to Mr. Bourgi, the money went through briefcases or djembes and arrived on the office of the Secretary General of the Elysee, Dominique de Villepin. Despite his threats, Villepin will never bring a complaint against Bourgi. Second testimony: in June 2014, in the book-interview, For truth and justice , published by Editions du moment, former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, questioned by François Mattei in his prison of the ICC, in the Netherlands, acknowledges that during a visit to Paris in December 2001, he gave Jacques Chirac money. " Villepin and Robert Bourgi asked me to spit on the pelvis for the 2002 election in France [...] I'm not proud of this episode, but I thought I would gain the necessary leeway to move towards our goals. Clearly, Gbagbo hoped to buy the benevolent neutrality of Chirac, Bédié's old friend. The sequence of events will show him that it was a miscalculation ... In the defense of Chirac, many other French politicians siphoned the money from Gabonese oil for their campaign expenses. In 2001, in the book-interview Elf affair, affair of state, appeared at Cherche Midi, the former CEO of Elf, Le Floch Prigent, admits that, through its bank, FIBA, Elf Gabon has become in 1980-1990 the main black fund of the French state. The Floch claims that the oil company financed both the campaigns of the socialist François Mitterrand and the Gaullist Jacques Chirac. He even said that in his office of the Elysee, Mitterrand asked him to continue to support his opponent Chirac! " Make the system work like General de Gaulle wanted. [...] Elf served for the political financing of the Gaullist party. It was even created for that, "says Mitterrand to Le Floch. According to the French investigating judges Éva Joly and Laurence Vichnievsky, between 1980 and 1995, Elf was robbed of some 20 billion francs (300 million euros) for the benefit of African heads of state, including Omar Bongo, and of several French political parties, including the Socialist Party and the RPR. This will be the biggest financial scandal in French judicial history. Another case where the name of Jacques Chirac was quoted, that of the French arms company Thales, suspected of having paid South African politicians for contracts. According to a South African witness, Ajay Sookal, the former French president, has asked his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki to bury his country's justice investigation.
President Chirac did not only have friends in Africa, he also had his Turk's heads. How can his difficult reports be explained, particularly with Laurent Gbagbo ?
For Chirac, a " good " African president was a " friend " president of France. And as Houphouet was the best " friend " of France in Africa, any opponent of Houphouet was suspicious. In the time of Houphouet, who was the Ivorian opposition the most determined and the most enduring? Gbagbo. During the many Houphouët-Chirac tete-a-tetes between 1980 and 1993, we guess that Gbagbo was not at the party. And this day of February 1990 when Chirac declares at the microphone of RFI's correspondent in Abidjan: " Multipartyism is a kind of luxury that developing countries can not afford to afford, " he says. long interview with Houphouët and aims in the first place the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) Gbagbo, which challenges the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) Houphouet its status as a single party. In Chirac's eyes, Gbagbo was twice wrong. The Ivorian was not only the " enemy of his friend " (Houphouet until his death, in 1993, then Bédié from that date), but also the " friend of his enemy " (Jospin from 1997 ). Indeed, at the beginning of the Chirac-Jospin cohabitation (1997-2002), the French socialists - notably Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and the first secretary of the PS François Hollande - relied on the Ivorian opposition Laurent Gbagbo to try to break the monopoly of Jacques Chirac's RPR on French-Ivorian networks. And logically, during the military coup of Christmas 1999, when Chirac wanted to send French soldiers to the rescue of Bédié, Jospin has opposed and has multiplied the political gestures to help Gbagbo to take power, ten months later. As summarized by the essayist Antoine Glaser, from October 2000, " Chirac has always considered Gbagbo as the illegitimate child of cohabitation, a parenthesis that would not last. "
Did Jacques Chirac help Burkina Faso's Ivorian opposition leader Alassane Ouattara to stand up in September 2002 via Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore? Nothing proves it. What is certain is that, despite Gbagbo's appeal for help, Chirac only responded with half a measure. To the chagrin of the Ivorian president who waved the Franco-Ivorian defense agreement signed in 1961, he did not order French troops to reconquer the rebel zone in northern Côte d'Ivoire. Then, in January 2003, through the Marcoussis agreement, he tried unsuccessfully to impose on Gbagbo a power-sharing in Abidjan. We must see the photos of Chirac and Gbagbo side by side, the day after the Marcoussis agreement. Obviously, the two men hate each other and are in an almost open war. Assassination of Jean Hélène, the RFI correspondent in Abidjan, on October 21, 2003; fierce crackdown on opposition demonstration in Abidjan - at least 120 dead according to the UN - 25 March 2004; kidnapping and disappearance of French journalist Guy-André Kieffer April 16, 2004 ... At that time, the regime of Laurent Gbagbo hardens and multiplies the abuses. On November 6, 2004, during an attempt to reconquer the north of the country, the Ivorian aviation kills nine French soldiers. After the destruction in retaliation of the Ivorian fleet by France, a hunt for "whites" "Is launched and a shootout erupts in Abidjan between French soldiers and demonstrators Ivorians. Assessment: dozens of Ivorians killed and more than 8,000 French evacuated in a hurry. It is at this point that the verbal exchanges between Chirac and Gbagbo are the most violent. Chirac: " We do not want to let develop [in Abidjan] a system that can lead to anarchy or a regime of a fascist nature. Gbagbo: " President Chirac has supported the single party in Ivory Coast for 40 years. What is closer to the single party than fascism ? The Gbagbo-Chirac relationship is a bit like the story of an African who stands up to a very paternalistic Frenchman, but who then skips and offers his adversary the opportunity to weaken him. In May 2007, when Jacques Chirac left power, Laurent Gbagbo is still there and seems to come out victorious from this fight. In fact, four years later, in April 2011, the Ouattara-Sarkozy couple will have the last word.
In your opinion, did Jacques Chirac deserve his " African " qualifier?
Yes and no.
Yes, because unlike his two successors, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, Jacques Chirac has traveled extensively in Africa, has established relationships - more or less interested - with many politicians and sincerely loved the culture African. Hence the creation, in Paris in 2006, of the Museum of Arts and Civilizations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, known today as the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum.
No, because this " African passion " was far from exclusive. There are countless trips to Japan, probably the country on the planet that fascinated him the most. Chirac had a real Asian tropism. The former president also had very strong ties with the Arab world, including the king of Morocco - father and son - and former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. After his assassination in February 2005, Chirac moved heaven and earth, especially at the UN, for the perpetrators to appear before an ad hoc tribunal, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). . Would he have done it for an African statesman? And after his departure from the Elysée, it is in a Parisian apartment belonging to the Hariri family that Jacques Chirac settled, with his wife ... without paying the least rent!
If we say " Chirac the African ", why not say " Chirac the Asiatic " or " Chirac the Arab " - to remember that he was also the man who said no to George Bush in February 2003 when the United States decided to invade Iraq? In fact, Chirac's passion was France. In good Gaullist, he wanted to give his country a maximum radiation in the world. And since Africa was the last continent - outside Europe - where France still exerted influence, he had to say to himself: " Go for Africa. "
That said, he learned to love Africa for real. His men and his cultures. One day in 2008, he let go, in a form of mea culpa both cynical and premonitory: " We only forget one thing is that a large part of the money that is in our wallet comes precisely from the exploitation of Africa for centuries. So, you have to have some common sense, I do not say generosity ; a bit of common sense, of justice, to give back to Africans ... I would say what they have been taken all the more that it is necessary if we want to avoid the worst convulsions or difficulties with the political consequences that this involves in the near future. »(1)
(1) Jacques Chirac, May 10, Africaphonie (2008), written by Alain Bidjeck, Modeste Sallah and Michaël Gosselin.
On the same subject
Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac: the ten years of the Africa collection
Bourgi case: Jacques Chirac complains against his "Mr. Africa"
The Fondation Chirac prize awarded to Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege
Marguerite Barankitse laureate of the Chirac prize for her action in favor of orphans in Burundi
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