The French public is paying a final farewell to the late former president, Jacques Chirac who is remembered as a charismatic leader and is considered as a giant figure in domestic and international politics.
Passing away of Chirac, aged 86, on Thursday prompted a flood of tributes to a man whose high-profile political career spanned four decades, 12 years of which as president.
Thirty heads of state and government in the world have announced that they will attend the farewell ceremony today including Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani who will attend the national funeral of former French president which will be held in Paris.
A religious procession, headed by Macron, will be held at 12:00 at Saint-Sulpice Church in Paris today which is declared a day of national mourning.
According to the AFP, a poll in Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed that the French consider him to have been their best president of the modern era, alongside Charles de Gaulle, for whose principles of the Fifth Republic.
Chirac served twice as Prime Minister of France: from 27 May 1974 to 26 August 1976, and from 20 March 1986 to 10 May 1988, was elected president in 1995, after serving Mayor of Paris and was renewed for a second term in 2002, and his presidency ended on May 17, 2007.
During his reign, France won the World Cup for the first time in 1998 in Paris after defeating Brazil in the final match (3-0).
Chirac was self-possessed sober man and a balanced figure, known for his concern for the independence of foreign policy of his country. His personality reflected in domestic and foreign policy where he took courageous positions on many hot issues during his presidency.
He maintained good relations with many Arab leaders and was described as a ‘friend of the Arabs’. H H the Amir tweeted, “I am deeply saddened by the death of former president of France, Jacques Chirac.
He was our dear friend. My sincere condolences to his family as well as to the French people.”
His balanced stance on the Israeli occupation, which rejects settlements and supports the establishment of a Palestinian state, was the first of its kind and his position was described as “unusual” by Western governments, defending Palestinian rights. Chirac was one of the very few Western leaders who defended the right of the Palestinian people to establish their own independent state, and he received the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat about 30 times since he took office in 1995 and until the time of Arafat’s death in November 2004.
Chirac was a wise and discerning man with a farsightedness reflected in his opposition to the invasion of Iraq, where he clearly rejected the invasion by the United States in 2003. When the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in 2005, Chirac took a tough stance, pointing finger at the Syrian regime and severed his relationship with President Bashar Al Assad.
