INTERVIEW
Can Bernadette Chirac be present at the homage ceremonies to her husband Jacques Chirac, who died Thursday at the age of 86? The question arises, while the former First Lady is very weak for several months, and has significantly reduced his public appearances. Invited Friday of Europe 1, Philippe Goulliaud, former correspondent at the Elysee for AFP and Le Figaro , "think she will be there", and recalls how she and her husband was "a real couple, united in adversity. "
A First Lady "extremely active and popular"
Bernadette and Jacques Chirac were "a real couple", he explains, "what many people have often forgotten or neglected". A couple, he describes again, "united in the adversity, the conquest, the exercise of power". And for the former correspondent, the former president of the "yellow coins", "extremely active and popular", has "contributed to the popularity of her husband".
PORTRAIT - Chirac, the nine lives of a political beast
Inseparable during all these years, the couple had a terrible ordeal with the death of their daughter Laurence, suffering from anorexia nervosa, in 2016. "An absolute tragedy for her and her husband," says Philippe Goulliaud. At the Montparnasse cemetery, Jacques Chirac will be buried by his side, rather than on his lands in Corrèze. "For Jacques Chirac, it was important to be with his daughter Laurence," says Philippe Goulliaud.