Paris (AFP)

A Jacques Chirac terribly diminished by the disease, a public speech locked by his entourage ... The "Here is Chirac" of the writer and publisher Jean-Luc Barré reveals the bottom of the life of the former president after his 12 years at the Élysée.

Director of the collection "Bouquins" at Robert Laffont, biographer of François Mauriac, Jean-Luc Barré was chosen in November 2007 by the family of Jacques Chirac and the publisher Nicole Lattès to write his Memoirs ("Every step must be a goal ", 2009 and" Presidential Time ", 2011).

"I was officially responsible for + collaborating in the drafting of the book. + A mild euphemism.This writing, I was originally unaware that it would be up to me to ensure it alone and full, once collected that worth the memories of the former president, "says Jean-Luc Barré in his book published by Fayard (388 pages, 20 euros)

The book, completed in January 2016 and left in a drawer before being shot at 60,000 copies after the death of Jacques Chirac, tells the scenes of this work of "ghostwriter" made difficult by the locking of his public speech operated by his entourage .

"Each improvised speech - as well as his statement of support to François Hollande at the Sarran museum in June 2011 - sounds like an act of rebellion against the state of dependence or semi-consciousness where one s' strives to relegate + for its good + ", writes Jean-Luc Barré.

The wife of the former head of state is a ruthless relator. Jean-Luc Barré says that it makes him the beginning of the proofs of memoirs "annotated on all sides, full of exclamation marks or interrogation." Some paragraphs underlined in outline, others flanked by commentators or judgments expeditious ".

The entourage of the former president worries about his opinion (very mediocre) on Nicolas Sarkozy or Valery Giscard d'Estaing. Bernadette Chirac is offended by passages "too laudatory", according to her, with respect to Dominique de Villepin.

On Giscard, she says that "a portrait of the prosecution" will revive his fury against us + (...) He wants the skin of my husband + ".

Even diminished by the disease, the former president has no harsh words against Nicolas Sarkozy. "Sarkozy you have to leave him in his little corner, that's where he is the best", Jacques Chirac jokes. "I have never been right," he insists.

The book also portrays a man terribly affected by the disease.

"The man I found at the end of the summer of 2011 in a state of exhausting exhaustion, aged in a few months at breakneck speed, has little in common with the former president still master of he, player, rogue, provocateur, whom I knew when he came out of power, "says Jean-Luc Barré.

"Disappointed and increasingly isolated, it is reduced to the most dull day, a repetitive life" ...

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