TWELVE YEARS OF 1995
And Worse

LIMITED LEGACY FOR 'LE BULLDOZER' FRENCH PRESIDENT

PARIS March 12, 2007 (FT) - Few politicians can pat a cow’s hindquarters with anything resembling the pleasure of Jacques Chirac. ... As for his legacy, most analysts agree that Chiraquisme, apart from supporting farmers, does not stand for much. ... Franz-Olivier Giesbert, in his best-selling book The Tragedy of the President, said: "There is a Chirac curse. A sort of incapacity to govern that leads him sooner or later to put the country against him." ... As Dominique Strauss Kahn, the former Socialist finance minister who served in Mr Chirac's first term, said: "Chirac has more qualities to conquer power than to exercise it." ... What stands out - for his detractors - from Mr Chirac's record is a sense of wasted opportunities.

FRANCE DESERVED MORE

March 12, 2007 (Telegraph) - Convention demands that we say nice things about people when they retire but, in the case of Jacques Chirac, it is not easy. ...as a politician, he embodied and benefited from much that is wrong with French politics. ... He is charming, inconstant, imposing, dashing and shameless. ... In 2002, when he faced Jean-Marie Le Pen in the presidential run-off, voters went to the polls with banners proclaiming "Better sleaze than hatred", and "Rather the shyster than the fascist". Mr Chirac won 82 per cent of the vote. ... It is said that, in a democracy, people get the politicians they deserve. France deserved better.

FRANCE'S LE WORM SLIDES OFF
March 12, 2007 (Sun Online)

The originial Sun "worm" edition of February 20, 2003 can be found here, its front page here.

FAINT PRAISE AND CANDID CRITICISM OF CHIRAC

PARIS March 12, 2007 (AFP) - European newspapers on Monday offered at best qualified praise and also sharp criticism for French President Jacques Chirac, a day after he announced he would not be running for a third term.

• Berliner Zeitung: What did this man do with the chances he had? Very little. ... [Jack leaves politics with France] in the state it was in when he came to power in 1995.
  

• Frankfurter Rundschau: [Jack left behind a France] searching for its identity.
  

• Der Speigel: Not much will remain of the legacy of Chirac, who over 40 years helped to shape French politics.
  

• Le Soir (Belgium): [A] political weathervane, a feeble strategist but an excellent demagogue.
  

• Der Standard (Austria): [Withholding support for Sarko, shows Jack] only thought about himself. Maybe his succession doesn't matter to him ... For that reason too, he can hardly expect applause as he steps down.

PFFT (What is this?): Un navet 4½ | Catching the imagination of Europa 1¼ | Rayonnement français 0