INTERVIEW
During his long career as a journalist, Franz-Olivier Giesbert has spent a lot of time with Jacques Chirac, including a biography, Chirac, a life , published in 2016. The day after the death of the former head of state At the age of 86, the writer and editorialist at Le Point returned to his vision of this political beast, "the last great Gallic giant".
PORTRAIT - Chirac, the nine lives of a political beast
"There is something very Gallic at home," entry note Franz-Olivier Giesbert, at the microphone Nathalie Levy, describing a former President of the Republic "irresistible". "He loved to booze, he smoked cigarettes, he was a bit transgressive," he recalls. "He liked to shock", with "a bad boy side". But, he says, Jacques Chirac also had "something very rigorous". And to quote the attachment of the latter to "the republic, the values, France".
"It's hard to imagine anyone of this magnitude in the coming years"
While political commentators have often recalled the various ideological evolutions of the former mayor of Paris, "FOG" believes that these analyzes are the result of "people who did not know Chirac". According to him, Chirac "was all at the same time, at the same time". "An adjective that sums it up well, he adds, it's 'foutraque'".
"I loved him," said the columnist about Jacques Chirac, before regretting "it's hard to imagine someone of this magnitude in the coming years".