ON THE JDD
Very popular since his departure from the Elysee in 2007, Jacques Chirac, who died Thursday at the age of 86, has marked the French with his long political career and his twelve years as head of state. This is the main lesson of an Ifop study unveiled Sunday by the Journal du Dimanche , in which 30% of those questioned designate the former head of state as the best president of the Fifth Republic, tied with the general of Gaulle.
PORTRAIT - Chirac, the nine lives of a political beast
The former mayor of Paris is therefore cited by 30% of French, or 20% more than according to a last Ifop study of 2013. Placed at the same level as General de Gaulle, he arrives far ahead of his predecessor, François Mitterrand, cited by only 17% of the French. The current president Emmanuel Macron collects only 7% of the vote.
"A friendly character who loved life"
More than his qualities as a statesman or his political record, the French mainly retain President Jacques Chirac his human qualities. Thus, 31% of French respondents first describe the former president as a "friendly character who loved life", and 27% first retain "a member of the field close to the French". While the fifth president of the Fifth Republic is often criticized for the inadequacy of its balance sheet, only 7% of respondents prefer to first describe Jacques Chirac as "a president who has made few reforms".
Regarding, precisely, the record of the twelve years of Jacques Chirac in power, an action of the former president particularly marked the French. 71% of those who responded to Ifop retain "above all" of the assessment of Jacques Chirac his opposition to the Iraq war in 2003, far ahead of the withdrawal of military service (41% of respondents). Among the other feats of arms, we find the famous Johannesburg speech in 2002 on climate risk, with its famous warning, "our house burns and we look elsewhere", as well as its recognition of the responsibility of the French State in the deportation of Jews during the Occupation (cited by 33% and 32% of respondents, respectively). 15% of the French cite, them, the referendum lost of 2005 on the European Constitution as main memory of the presidency of Jacques Chirac.
Alain Juppé, the main heir
François Baroin, Christian Jacob, and Jean-François Cope: Many right-wing politicians have regularly called themselves "Chiraquisme". But for the French, Alain Juppé is the heir of Jacques Chirac (62% of respondents). The former mayor of Bordeaux, whom Chirac described as "best of us", ahead Nicolas Sarkozy (36%). Note that the socialist Francois Hollande, who had never hidden his good relations with Jacques Chirac, with whom he shared a deep attachment to the Corrèze, collects him 17% and ahead of Xavier Bertrand and Valérie Pécresse for example.
Survey of a sample of 1,015 people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over.