France on Monday mourns its former president, Jacques Chirac, who died last Thursday at the age of 86. The leaders of more than 30 countries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, will attend the funeral.
Monday was declared a day of national mourning in France, and a minute of silence will be required in departments and schools, while French President Emmanuel Macron will attend a military honoring ceremony and an official funeral at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris.
In addition to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Italian counterparts Sergio Matarella and Congolese Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hungarian Victor Urban will attend the ceremony, according to the Elysee Palace.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel announced their participation on Friday.
In contrast, the Royal Court announced that King Mohammed VI will not be able to attend because of the disease, and will be represented by Crown Prince Moulay Hassan.
Foreign dignitaries expected to be in power under Chirac, including former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and former Senegalese President Abdou Diouf.
Macron then receives some of these visitors around a lunch table.
| Citizens waited amid emotions in the courtyard of the Lizanvalid building (Anatolia) |
Condolences and honor
Immediately after the announcement last Thursday of Chirac's death after suffering from the disease for years, many people around the world rushed to pay condolences and honor, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and former US President Bill Clinton and his wife and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
On Thursday, Putin praised Chirac's "wise and visionary" leader, after he was impressed by Chirac in an interview with the Financial Times in June.
"After devoting his life to public service, former President Chirac has worked tirelessly to uphold the values and ideals we share with France," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Sunday.
Since Sunday, the French have flocked to the building of Lesanvalides, home to the tombs of some of France's top men, such as Napoleon, to greet the coffin of Chirac, one of the most prominent faces of French political life. Everyone as "French in depth" with what he has and what he is.
Citizens waited amid emotions, sometimes in the rain, in the courtyard of the building, standing in a long line up to the street, to honor the man who led France for 12 years between 1995 and 2007, after he was mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995.
At the request of his wife Bernadette Sewari, Chirac was buried in the cemetery of Montparnasse in Paris, where their eldest daughter, Lawrence, died in 2016.