PARIS: After more than 40 years in front-line politics, French President Jacques Chirac is nearing the end of his career, and the wolves are circling.
Although he has not ruled out running for an unprecedented third term in office in next year's presidential election, no one believes that the 73-year-old veteran has either the energy or the support to prolong his stay at the top.
But as the curtain comes down on his decades of power, Chirac is not basking in good reviews. Instead, barely a week passes without some new attack appearing on the bookshelves, in the cinema or on television.
Journalists are emptying their notebooks, enemies are putting the boot in and friends are keeping a low profile. The cacophony of criticism invariably leads to one simple question -- why didn't Chirac achieve more?
“Why has a political animal who is so gifted at reaching the peaks of power ... collected so many failures,” a recent documentary on France 2 state television asked.
“That is the mystery of Chirac ...,” it concluded. It was the first time state television has done a full profile of a president still in office and it drew on an array of political heavyweights who presented Chirac as someone who could be liked but not necessarily admired.
“Chirac was a political Don Juan, more concerned about winning and maintaining power than exercising that power,” says Philippe Seguin, a senior member of Chirac's rightist camp.
The president's diminishing band of allies say Chirac has merely become a convenient lightning rod for both the left and right ahead of the 2007 elections at a time when France is struggling to come to terms with globalisation.
“The exiting-president serves as a scapegoat, destined to incarnate all the sins of the Republican order,” said historian Alain-Gerard Slama, calling the attacks a “spiritual cleansing” of the presidential office before a new incumbent arrived.
Chirac entered the cabinet of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou in 1962. Since then he has jumped from one high office to another, serving twice as prime minister, between 1974-76 and 1986-88, and as president since 1995.
Probably no other politician in the West has proved so successful at winning power, but despite all the victories, Chirac's critics say he will be largely remembered for his many failures -- especially his inability to renew a flailing France. Among the titles to have hit the book stores this year are “The irresponsible”, “Chirac and the 40 liars”, “Our children will hate us”, “France can take the truth”, and “Enough lies, hypocrisy, promises, chatter, treachery, cowardice”.
In the best-selling book, “The Tragedy of the President”, author Franz-Olivier Giesbert argues that Chirac had an insatiable appetite for everything but tough, meaningful reform.
“He is an ogre. He gulps down everything with the same gluttony. Men, women, ideas, mileage, loves, defeats or cheap meals. Everything in life follows the same cycle: indigestion, digestion, rejection. He retains nothing. Not even his friends.”To prove the point, some of his one-time friends are quoted unleashing ferocious barbs at the ageing leader, who is the most unpopular president in the history of the Fifth Republic.
“One thinks that Jacques Chirac is very stupid and very nice. In fact, he is very intelligent and very unpleasant,” says Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative frontrunner in next year's presidential ballot.
One popular film that came out during the summer used Chirac's own words to beat him around the head.
“Being Jacques Chirac” used a montage of television and newsreel clips to present a cruel but often extremely funny portrait of the president, juxtaposing a stream of contradictory statements on questions ranging from Europe to road safety.His political flip-flops have earned him the nickname “the weathervane” and given his critics endless ammunition.
“He has a capacity to change political position that makes him a major opportunist. He is the knight of opportunism,” former Prime Minister Raymond Barre told France 2.—Reuters
