The former president's memoirs give an unflattering assessment of his successor, writes RUADHÁN Mac CORMAICin Paris
CHIRAC AND Sarkozy. Sarkozy and Chirac. For much of the past two decades, the relationship between France’s former president Jacques Chirac and his erstwhile protege Nicolas Sarkozy has been one of the most intriguing in French politics.
When he stepped down in 2007, Chirac vowed never to comment publicly on his successor. And, until now, he kept his word.
In the keenly awaited second volume of his memoirs, due to be published next week, Chirac gently but unmistakably confirms what was widely suspected: that he didn’t trust Sarkozy, had misgivings about his temperament, disagreed with his politics and never quite forgave the younger man for his betrayal.
Covering Chirac’s 12 years at the Élysée Palace, the 624-page volume gives a broadly unflattering assessment of his successor, according to long extracts published in two news magazines. While admiring the energy, tactical sense and media skills that made Sarkozy “one of the most gifted politicians of his generation”, Chirac describes him as “impetuous, excitable, doubting nothing – especially himself”. Jacques and his wife, Bernadette, regarded Sarkozy as a family friend, but his decision to support Chirac’s rival Édouard Balladur in a contest for their party’s presidential nomination in 1995 soured relations between the pair.
“There are too many dark areas and misunderstandings between Nicolas Sarkozy and me,” Chirac writes of their relationship, explaining why he twice refused to name Sarkozy as prime minister, despite his popularity and transparent desire for the job. “It would have never worked.” Another reason for overlooking Sarkozy for the job was that he was “too right-wing economically”, wanted to appeal to the far right, too pro-American and “because we probably did not share the same vision of France”.
As far back as 1995, Chirac believed Sarkozy was trying to undermine him.
Three months before that year’s presidential election, allegations surfaced about a land deal involving the family of Bernadette Chirac. “I never found proof that it was initiated by the budget ministry,” Chirac writes, referring to the department led at the time by one Nicolas Sarkozy.
It became clear relatively early in his presidency, Chirac writes, that Sarkozy had designs on his job. The younger man sought to engineer personal confrontation, on one occasion pointedly and publicly mocking Japanese culture and sumo wrestling – two of Chirac’s well-known passions. “I pretended not to notice that I was the target,” the 78-year-old writes. “I just told myself we had neither the same tastes nor the same culture.” Privately, he took the future president to task when, as interior minister at the time of the suburban riots of 2005, Sarkozy referred to youth gangs as “scum” and vowed to “take a power hose” to the banlieues.
Each reference to Sarkozy comes across as a judgment on the president’s character. In one of the closing scenes, Chirac describes sitting in the Élysée with his close friends on election night in 2007 to watch Sarkozy’s victory speech. “Each one of us listened closely to every sentence, every word he said, quietly waiting for the moment where he would no doubt mention the name of the man he was about to succeed, or even thank him for his support. But that moment never came.” Though Chirac left office with one of the lowest approval ratings in recent French history, Sarkozy’s current scores are even lower. In retirement, Chirac has become one of the country’s most popular public figures, his calm, paternal style offering a striking contrast to that of his successor.
With Sarkozy facing an election campaign in less than a year, his one-time mentor’s new book has already caused a stir in Paris. Not least for a fleeting mention of one of Sarkozy’s main rivals for the presidency – the socialist François Hollande. By ensuring the adoption in parliament of Chirac’s ban on Muslim headscarves in state schools, Hollande “acted like a true statesman”, Chirac writes.