To bear the name of Chirac and to be a candidate in Corrèze is to follow in the footsteps of the former president and his wife.

This is also the challenge that Claude Chirac decided to take up, with the agreement of his mother.

Candidate for the departmental elections, she claims to have a "visceral attachment" to the territory, which some residents openly doubt.

REPORTAGE

A member of the Chirac family candidate in Corrèze, it is a tradition.

In the footsteps of his father and mother, Jacques and Bernadette, Claude Chirac fully intends to keep the name alive at the local level.

She is a candidate in the departmental elections for the outgoing majority in the canton of Brive 2, the same where her mother has completed her political engagement.

She received the blessing from the latter to launch into the campaign and will also benefit from her advice to defend her project in front of the voters.

A load that Claude Chirac says he hesitated to take on but that she intends to carry with determination.

A "visceral attachment" to Corrèze

“The name I wear is an additional requirement, but once the decision is made I don't look back,” she explains.

"However, I am neither Jacques nor Bernadette. I would do the best possible. You can say at the end if I was up to the situation or not," said the candidate. 

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The locals are skeptical.

"Why not ... Because Chirac, since from the right, the Chirac is part of Corrèze life", judge Lionel, inhabitant of Brive.

The tone is less welcoming on the side of Yvette who underlines her lack of local anchoring.

"She introduces herself, but she has something here in Brive? She lives in Paris, so I don't see the need for her to come and introduce herself here," she says.

These criticisms, Claude Chirac hears and responds to them. "Madame Pompidou, who was a bit of a model for my mother, said: 'to be useful to no one is to serve nothing'. And it's true that it is my education," she says. . "If you put that in relation to my visceral attachment to the Corrézienne land - which is my family land -, to the Corréziens, well, this departmental candidacy offers me an extraordinary chance." She has until June to convince voters.