{"id":8591,"date":"2007-03-12T16:11:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-12T23:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=8591"},"modified":"2007-03-12T16:11:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-12T23:11:00","slug":"frances-chirac-leaving-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=8591","title":{"rendered":"France’s Chirac Leaving Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the AP<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Jacques Chirac left one question unanswered: Who will he back to succeed him as France’s president?\n<\/p>\n

\nFellow conservative Nicolas Sarkozy expects to get Chirac’s nod—despite a longtime rivalry—after the French leader announced Sunday that he will not seek a third term, ending four decades in politics.\n<\/p>\n

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\nChirac’s emotive televised farewell to the nation, just six weeks before the election’s first round April 22, drew both praise for his statesmanship and criticism of his economic record in 12 years as president.\n<\/p>\n

\nChirac’s blessing could be important for Sarkozy amid tight poll margins among him, Socialist Segolene Royal and increasingly popular centrist Francois Bayrou. The race remains wide open, with pollsters saying nearly half of voters remain undecided.\n<\/p>\n

\nSarkozy—who heads Chirac’s UMP party but has based his campaign on pledges to break with the past—is treading carefully, saying today that he was moved by Chirac’s speech but refusing to present himself as the president’s heir.\n<\/p>\n

\nHe praised Chirac’s “extraordinary energy, an untamable faith, a will to overcome all obstacles. It’s a very respectable life, the life of Jacques Chirac. There were political and personal obstacles and he never kneeled down once. He fought.”\n<\/p>\n

\nSunday’s speech “was a page of Jacques Chirac’s life that was turned, but also one of ours, of the French people and maybe one of mine as well,” Sarkozy said in a radio interview.\n<\/p>\n

\nMuch reaction to Chirac’s speech was tinged with nostalgia for the passing of an era. His successor will almost certainly be France’s first leader born after World War II, and none of the candidates has the stature on the world stage that Chirac built up.\n<\/p>\n

\nCritics say he focused too hard on international affairs while France saw wages stagnate and discrimination fester. And despite Chirac’s efforts, France’s influence on the world stage has waned.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat Chirac refused to endorse his own party’s candidate is not really surprising.  Chirac, after all, was never really into that whole “ally” thing—though he certainly embodied the kind of intense nationalism for which France is famous.\n<\/p>\n

\nIronic, then, that he would be embraced by so many on the Transnationalist left—natural opponents of chauvinism who were nevertheless happy enough with French nationalism and opportunism when it served to kneecap the US in the UNSC.\n<\/p>\n

\nSeems the worldview of the transnationalists has quite a bit in common, tactically speaking, with that of the “realists.” I leave it to you to connect the dots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the AP: Jacques Chirac left one question unanswered: Who will he back to succeed him as France’s president? Fellow conservative Nicolas Sarkozy expects to get Chirac’s nod—despite a longtime rivalry—after the French leader announced Sunday that he will not seek a third term, ending four decades in politics. Advertisement Chirac’s emotive televised farewell to the nation, just six weeks before the election’s first round April 22, drew both praise<\/p>\n

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